Let the Storm Rage On
by ConcealDon'tFeel
Summary: When Jack Frost accidentally crash-lands onto the Snow Queen's balcony, he can tell almost immediately that they've got a lot in common, but Elsa's too stubborn to accept his help. That is until Anna gets hurt and Pitch tries to exploit Elsa's terror. I'M SORRY, BAD SUMMARY, I DON'T HAVE ENOUGH CHARACTER SPACE TO MAKE THIS WORK DX IT'S A JELSA, OKAY, THAT'S THE MOST IMPORTANT PART
1. Chapter 1

**OOOOOKAY, so yes, I hopped on the Jelsa bandwagon. THEY ARE JUST SO PERFECT FOR EACH OTHER, I MEAN THEY EVEN LOOK LIKE THEY BELONG TOGETHER FOR CRYING OUT LOUD AND THINK OF IT THEY COULD HAVE CUTE LITTLE SNOWBALL FIGHTS OF LURV ALL THE TIME AND HAVE ADORABLE LITTLE ICE BABIES TOGETHER AND AAAAAAHHHHHH**

***fangirls and dies***

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"Wooooaaah! Hey, wait a—Oooooh, crap! INCOMING! LOOK OUT BELOW!"  
Somewhere in the back of his mind, Jack had a brief thought about how in all his travels, he could honestly say that he had probably never come across a sight such as this before, but since he was so busy yelling at the top of his lungs as he fell rapidly from the sky after losing control while riding the winds, the thought was gone almost as soon as it had come. (Then again, he'd also thought it a bit strange to see Arendelle frozen in solid ice and several feet of snow as he'd flown over it earlier, especially since it was summer in this area and he therefore hadn't done anything to it lately, let alone frozen it solid.)

Next thing he knew, he had crash-landed onto and was skidding across the wide, open balcony on the palace of ice that sat on the mountaintop that he was fairly certain hadn't been there the last time he'd come through this area, only coming to a stop when his back met with the double doors that opened onto said balcony. He let out an "ugh" as all the air went rushing out of his lungs, the jolt sending his staff out of his hand and clattering across the balcony. He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment as he tried to collect himself and catch his breath before even trying to stand up and retrieve his staff, but before he could get much farther than the collecting himself part, the doors behind him opened, and he immediately fell backwards, sending the air out of his lungs for the second time in less than five minutes. He groaned and slowly opened his eyes, blinking to bring things into focus. As he did, the three identical women standing above him merged together, leaving only one by the time things were no longer fuzzy.

Because of the way he was laying and where she was standing, he was seeing her upside down, but that didn't matter, because he was still able to get a good look at her. She was pretty, he couldn't deny that. She had blue eyes and pale skin and her white hair hung in a thick braid over her shoulder with little snowflakes in it. She was wearing an off-shoulder ice blue dress with that shimmered in the light with transparent sleeves that came down to points on the back of her hands, and there was a split on one side of the long skirt that revealed one long, pale, slender leg and a foot in a heel of what looked like crystal. And then for the finishing touch (and, he had to admit, it was a rather nice one, at that, although maybe that was just his flair for the dramatic talking), a long, glittering cape with snowflake patterns trailed on the floor behind her, obviously attached to the back of the dress itself.

"Who are you?" the girl asked, snapping him out of his thoughts. He blinked a few times, trying to find his voice. "Jack Frost," he said, then groaned as he sat up and rubbed his head, turning around to face the girl and finding that she was only a couple inches or so shorter than he was, even with him barefoot and her wearing heels. He stuck his arm out to the side, fingers spread, quickly shutting into a fist when his staff flew over to him. The girl blinked, but apparently she didn't find this too terribly strange, because that was her only visible reaction. "Jack Frost," she repeated, "as in...nipping at your nose?" His playful nature leaving him unable to resist, Jack grinned and lightly tapped the end of her nose with his fingertip. His feet left the ground to hover in front of her, and he bowed. "The one and only," he said. "And who, may I ask, do I have the pleasure of making the acquaintance of on this fine morning?"

"Queen Elsa of Arendelle."  
"Ah, Elsa! Last time I came through here, you were only about this big! So you're the queen now, huh? What are you doing way up here by your lonesome?"

Elsa blinked. "It's...a long story," she said, and took a step back, not wanting him to get hurt if she lost control. Jack frowned as his feet came back into contact with solid ground. He looked at her closely, and then something began to dawn on him. "Wait...your hair...is like mine," he said, his hand moving with a mind of its own to lightly touch his tresses. "It's white. And..." Without even thinking about it, he slowly reached out and gently took her hand in his, more puzzle pieces falling into place when he saw how remarkably similar their skin was in color. Elsa pulled her hand away nervously, biting her lower lip and not meeting his eyes. Jack looked around at the palace and really saw it for the first time, the last few pieces clicking into place.

"You built this place...didn't you? And—"  
"I'm dangerous!" Elsa cried suddenly, moving past him at a brisk pace towards the balcony railing. Jack followed on what felt like instinct, but he couldn't really fathom what sort of instinct that might be. He just felt this strange, inexplicable need to be near her, to talk to her, to learn more about her, maybe because she was, well...like him, or seemed to be, at the very least. "Elsa," he said, "I wanna show you something. Watch." He waited until she was reluctantly looking at him past her thick eyelashes, then propped his staff up against the railing and created a small flurry of snow above his palm. Elsa's eyes widened, and she immediately put her full attention on what he was doing. As she watched, he made the flurry a bit bigger, then gently blew on it, and it went swirling off into the distance, carried away by the wind.

"Wha—How—"  
"I'm a Guardian, Elsa. There are others, too. Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, and the Sandman. It's our job to protect world's children from darkness and evil. But we can't be seen by people who don't believe in us. We all have our own special powers that let us do our jobs. 'Cause, see, we protect the kids as a team, but separately, we have our own jobs. Our powers help us do both. For me, it's snow and ice and cold and riding the wind, because I'm the Spirit of Winter. I'm over three hundred years old, believe it or not. I used to be mortal, but...I...My little sister and I were ice skating, and the ice cracked. I didn't want her to panic, so I made up a game of hopscotch to get her off the ice, and it worked, but..."

"...But you fell in," Elsa said quietly. Jack nodded. "So...what happened then?" she asked. He looked up at the sky. "The Man in the Moon saw what happened," he told her, "so he shone his light on me and brought me back as an immortal, and...that's how I've been ever since. The Spirit of Winter and the Guardian of Fun. Elsa, can you...?"

Wordlessly, Elsa put a hand out in front of herself and sent a beam of ice out of her hand, creating a pillar that rose up in front of them, then curled her fingers inwards and lowered her hand and it was over. She kept her face a stoic mask the entire time, and afterwards, when she folded her hands on the railing in front of herself, her entire body was tense and she kept her eyes straight ahead. "How long—"

"My entire life. I was born with them, I don't know how or why, all I know is that ever since I was a little girl, I've had to keep them hidden. Before I came up here, I used to wear gloves all the time, because if I didn't, they would come out. When my little sister and I were both very young, we were best friends. She knew about my powers back then, but then one day, we were playing, and she was jumping from mounds of snow I was making. She kept telling me to catch her, and I kept making more mounds, and she kept jumping, but she was going too fast, I couldn't keep up, and I slipped on the ice on the floor, I was in my slippers and nightgown, we both were, and then it just...I couldn't...It hit her in the head and knocked her out, and we had to take her to the stone trolls. The leader, he took away all her memories of my powers when he healed her, and it left her with a pale blonde streak in her hair. Ever since then, it...I...we..."

"That's why your parents closed the gates, isn't it?" Jack said, and Elsa nodded. "But...that still doesn't explain what you're doing up here."  
"Well...my coronation the other day...Anna and I got into an argument, and she grabbed my wrist when I started to leave, but my glove ended up coming off, and...I lost control. They called me witch, monster...There was a duke that had come from...Weasel Town, I think it's called...He wanted to burn me at the stake. So I...I—"

"Panicked and fled up here," Jack finished solemnly. Elsa closed her eyes. "Exactly," she whispered.  
"It's better this way," she said after a moment, her voice strained. "Safer. For me, for Anna, for everyone. I can't hurt anyone up here. Besides, at least now I'm finally free. I can be myself without bringing harm to anyone, and...I'm finally able to just let it go. All of it. And, you know, the cold never bothered me, anyway. I'm alone, but I'm alone and free. For my entire life, I've had this mantra. Don't let them in, don't let them see, be the good girl you always have to be. Conceal, don't feel, don't let them know."

"So you...never really learned how to control your powers...did you?" Jack asked. Elsa sighed heavily. "No," she said, "never. I wouldn't have been able to keep them at bay, either, if not for the gloves." Jack's eyes widened suddenly as a thought occurred to him, and he went to hover on the other side of the railing, keeping his eyes level with the Snow Queen's. "Elsa!" he said. "What if it's the moon?"  
Elsa blinked, drawing back so that their noses weren't quite so close. "I—I'm sorry?" she said.

"The moon! If the moon tells you something, believe it! I'm a Guardian, I know that because the moon told me so! The Man in the Moon made me what I am, I would be nothing but bones at the bottom of a pond right now if not for him, he gave me my powers, what if he gave you yours, too?! It's possible, isn't it?"

She frowned, then shook her head as she turned and began heading inside without saying a word. Jack only hesitated for a moment before grabbing his staff and going after her, flying over her head to get in front of her and then floating there upside down with his staff held between his bent knees and his arms crossed. "Going somewhere, Majesty?" he asked with a smirk. Elsa gasped in surprise at his abrupt appearance, then scowled and went past him, leaving the room and heading down the stairs. Determined as he ever was, Jack followed, this time on foot.

"Queen Elsa, wait!" he called.  
"Go away," she said bluntly.

"I can help you!"  
"Nobody can help me!"  
"Please, just hear me out!"  
"I don't have to listen to you!"  
"You're right, you don't, but I wish you would!"

"Why should I?!"  
"Because we're the same!"  
"No we're not! How do I know you're who you say you are?!"

He took to the air and zipped ahead of her, coming down at the foot of the staircase she was on before she could step off of it, effectively blocking her path as he stood up to his full height and gripped his staff in one hand, the other arm hanging at his side as he stared her directly in the eyes without blinking, keeping his face as open and sincere as he could possibly get it.

"My name is Jackson Overland Frost," he said. "Three hundred years ago, I drowned at age seventeen. I was resurrected by the Man in the Moon and have been exactly as I am the way you see me ever since. I was born and raised in a town called Burgess, nothing but a small village during my time. I am the Spirt of Winter and the Guardian of Fun. I am known to humanity as Jack Frost, Father Frost, Old Man Winter, and Jokul Frosti, meaning Icicle Frost. My friends are the Sandman, Father Christmas, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, Baby Tooth, and a little boy from Burgess named Jamie and his friends. I control the wind, the cold, snow, frost, ice, and winter storms. I'm a rebel and a loner, and I helped my friends defeat a guy called Pitch. That's who I am. Who are you?"

Elsa stood speechless for a moment or so, blinking before slowly lowering her eyes to the ground.

"I...I thought I knew," she said quietly, "but now I'm not so sure."  
"I can help you find out," Jack said, his voice much softer than before. "But only if you'll let me. Look, I know what it's like to be unsure of your own identity. I used to not know who I was or where I had come from or what my purpose was, or if I even had a purpose. All I knew was that the first thing in my memories was being cold and scared and surrounded by darkness, and then the moon was there, and it was so big and bright and beautiful, and it chased the dark away, and I wasn't scared anymore. The moon told me my name was Jack Frost, but that was all he ever told me. I had to figure the rest out all by myself. I can help you find yourself, Elsa, the way my friends helped me. I can teach you how to control your powers. I want to help you, because I know how lonely you must be feeling, I've been there before, and nobody should have to feel like that. But the thing is, I can't help you unless you'll let me. _Will_ you let me?"

She opened her mouth, then closed it again and squeezed her eyes shut tightly. "I...I don't know," she said finally. Jack nodded in understanding. "Well, how about this, then," he said, and held his hand palm-up and fingers spread. Elsa watched as he formed a crystalline snowflake, then pulled a loose piece of string from his sweater and covered it in frost before threading the snowflake onto it. "Here," he said, holding it out to her. "Take it. It's yours. You can wear it as a necklace. I have things I have to take care of; kids depending on me for snow days, windows to frost, lakes to freeze, flurries to create, just my usual sort of thing. But if you ever end up deciding that you want my help, all you've gotta do is lay that thing down and step on the snowflake. It'll shatter, of course, but I'll come as soon as I can. Go on. Take it. Even if you don't decide you want my help, you can use it if you ever just want somebody to talk to."

Elsa hesitated for a moment before taking it from him. "I don't understand," she said softly, "why are you being so kind? You don't even know me."  
"I know you a lot better than you think I do," Jack replied simply. "Remember, I'm over three hundred years old, Elsa, this isn't the first time I've been in this area. I've visited Arendelle plenty of times before. This may be the first time you've seen me, but it's definitely not the first time I've seen you. It makes me sound like a stalker when I actually say it out loud, but it's true. Look, you don't have to decide right now, like I said, just take your time and think about it. Even if you never use that thing, I'll still come back to visit from time to time, just to check on you and see how you're holding up. But...like I said...think about it, okay? And if you decide you want my help, then...you know how to find me. In the meantime, though...I guess I'll see you later."

Elsa looked down at the delicate snowflake in her palm. "Jack...do you know if...Is Anna okay?" she asked. There was only silence in response. "Jack?" She looked up, but he was nowhere to be seen, and the only proof that she hadn't merely imagined the whole thing was the small, fragile crystal snowflake on a frost-covered string resting in her hand.

* * *

**Okay, so to tell the truth, I had seen RoTG in theaters, but I had never really had any massive interest in it until a few days ago when I realized how perfect Jack would be for Elsa, and so I ended up having to refresh my memory on certain things about him and the other Guardians by getting on the RoTG wiki AND I ENDED UP LEARNING ALL KINDS OF AWESOME CRAP I HAD NO IDEA ABOUT INCLUDING ABOUT THE GUARDIANS OF CHILDHOOD BOOKS WHICH I NOW WANT SO VERY BADLY TO READ  
**

**Anyway, according to the Wiki, Jack has been said to be frozen both at fourteen AND seventeen, and I thought about which one to use, then decided on seventeen because personally, I think he just LOOKS more like a seventeen-year-old than a fourteen-year-old, so yeah.**

**And, in other news, I own absolutely nothing! XD**


	2. Chapter 2

**Okay, I'm already working on the third chapter, and OMG JUST WAIT UNTIL THIS GETS GOING I WAS WRITING DOWN IDEAS AT SCHOOL TODAY I'M ALREADY HAVING SO MUCH FUN WITH IT AND I'VE BARELY EVEN GOTTEN STARTED**

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About a week later, Jack was standing on a roof in Burgess watching Jamie and his little sister play when he suddenly got a tingling sensation in the pit of his stomach and knew that Elsa had stepped on the snowflake he'd given her, so he took off into the sky with barely even thinking about it, riding the winds to Arendelle as fast as he possibly could. As he zipped over the city's rooftops, he took it all in and realized that things must have gotten worse, which was probably why Elsa was calling on him now. He pushed all thought from his mind and focused solely on reaching the ice palace on the North Mountain, skidding to a stop in the snow when he landed, then immediately beginning to run towards the staircase that she'd constructed out front leading up to the front doors.

"Elsa!" he called. "Elsa, it's me, Jack! Elsa, are you in there?! El—WOAH, HEY, WHAT THE—?!"  
He stumbled backwards, arms reeling to try and regain his balance before he suddenly found himself flat on his butt in the snow with a huge...golem, he supposed was the right word, looming above him and casting a massive shadow. It seemed to study him closely for a moment with dents in the snow it was made of, serving as its eyes, no doubt, and Jack was too shocked to do anything but sit there and stare up at it with wide eyes, chest heaving and heart racing. "Go 'way," it grunted. He blinked, rather surprised to learn that it was capable of speech. "Sorry, buddy," Jack said, "no can do. I've got a queen to help." And with that, he brought his staff up and fired a barrage of icicles in the monster's direction, then quickly dodged out of the way and took to the sky when it brought its massive fists down towards him.

"STOP!" a voice cried, and Jack froze right as he was getting ready to fire a second round of icicles, looking towards the source of the voice at the same time as the golem-beast-thing, who had its arm positioned to take a swing at the Guardian. Elsa stood at the top of the stairs with one of the doors standing open behind her. Her blue eyes were wide and had a terrified look in them, but then she blinked and her face took on a much more stern countenance. "It's okay," she said to the creature, which Jack then realized must have been of her own creation as a body guard of some sort. _And if she felt the need to create a body guard,_ he thought,_ then that means...Oh...Elsa...What's happened to you since I left? What is it that you're so afraid of you think you need protecting from?_

"It's okay," she repeated. "I called him here. Leave him alone." The golem let out a huff, its breath showing in the cold air, then got down on its knees in the big dent it had left in the snow by the staircase and went back to pretending it was a snow-covered boulder, which was exactly what Jack had taken it for at first. Elsa's shoulders dropped a considerable amount and the terrified look returned as Jack landed in front of her. "Elsa," he said, "what's going on, why—"

He broke off mid-sentence and dropped his staff in surprise when she threw herself at him all of a sudden, clinging desparately to the fabric of his sweater and breathing heavily. "Thank goodness you came," she said. "I—I didn't know what to do, I'm...There's just...There's so much fear, Jack, I...I lost control of myself again, and this time, I think I might have hurt Anna! I'm afraid that...And...And Olaf! I didn't know...!"

"Shh, Elsa, just calm down, alright? Panicking won't do you any good, it'll only make things worse, you need to calm down, okay? Just take deep breaths and try to relax, then tell me what happened so I understand. What do you mean you think you hurt Anna? Isn't she still in Arende—"

"No!" Elsa cried, shaking her head. "No, she's not! I thought she was, but she came up here after me, and...Jack, I didn't mean to, it was an accident, I didn't mean to freeze it! I didn't know, I didn't know, I swear!"  
"What didn't you know? I don't understand anything you're saying, you have to calm down or it'll only get worse!" Jack gripped her by the shoulders, and her hands flew up, fingers closing tightly around his wrists, both of them staring into each other's eyes intently.

"I froze Arendelle! Anna says that I set off an eternal winter, and she tried to get me to go back with her to unfreeze it, but I can't, I don't know how!"  
_"You_ did that? Really? I had no idea that you were that powerful, I never would have guessed just by looking at you, I mean...That's...impressive, actually."  
"You mean you saw it?! How bad is it?! She said it was everywhere, is it really?!"  
"It's...pretty bad. The fjord is solid ice, the roofs are covered in snow, all the fountains are frozen, windows are covered in frost...Elsa, you practically did my job for me down there, and it's not even winter yet."

"Can you unfreeze it for me? Please?"  
"I already tried last time I was here, before I crash-landed onto your balcony. It didn't work no matter what I did, and I couldn't figure out why, but I think I'm starting to."

"Jack, I...I'm scared. What am I supposed to do, how do I fix this?"  
"I don't know. I wish I did. I don't, though, I'm sorry. Although..."  
"Although? Although what? What is it, is there something I should know?"  
Jack met her eyes, his hands sliding off her shoulders and down her slender arms until they gripped hers. "Elsa," he said, "how much do you trust me?" Elsa drew back slightly and bit her lower lip. "Um...why?" she asked. Before she had time to register what was happening, he had wordlessly snatched his staff up from where it still lay on the ground after he'd dropped it earlier, then put an arm around her waist and pulled her up against himself. "Wait," she said, "what are you—"  
"Hold on tight, princess. It's gonna be a wild ride."

* * *

Elsa wanted to scream, but the sound caught in her throat from sheer terror, so instead, she just clung to Jack so tightly that she thought her nails must surely be digging into his skin and that he would be left with red marks later on as a result and squeezed her eyes shut so she wouldn't be tempted to look at just how high up they were. Finally, after what felt to her like a lifetime, there was a jolt, and she cracked an eye open just enough to see that they had landed on a rooftop. Jack set her down, then stepped in front of her. "Climb on," he said, "I'm gonna piggyback you the rest of the way so I'll have both hands ready to do something important once we get to where we're going."

She really didn't want to fly again, but since she saw no other option, Elsa did as he said, then immediately shut her eyes as Jack's feet began to leave the ground. Just in time, too, because in the next second, the wind was whooshing in her ears and whipping through her hair again. This time, she also buried her face in Jack's sweater, pressing her cheek up against his shoulder so that her face was buried in the crook of his neck. Thankfully, this trip was much shorter than the first, and soon enough, she could hear the unmistakable sounds of ice beginning to crack, then shattering, and in the next instant, she felt another jolt. After a moment, she slowly opened her eyes and lifted her face, then gasped at the sight she was met with.

"Welcome to the North Pole, Your Majesty," Jack said. Elsa's arms slowly unwound themselves from around his neck as her feet met the floor. Jack grinned at the awestruck look on her face. "Beautiful, isn't it?" he said, then frowned and ran a hand through his hair as he turned around. "Aw, jeez," he said, "North won't be happy about that." Elsa turned to see what he was talking about and saw that behind them, there was an open window with frost on part of the casing. There was a shattered pane of glass, the debris from which was scattered on the floor in front of them along with the handles that allowed the window to be opened, both of them covered in a layer of ice and one with a crack on it that threatened to leave it with the end broken off.

Behind them, the doors flew open and they both turned. Elsa's eyes widened and she blinked, not expecting to see what she did. The man coming into the room was absolutely massive. He was tall and muscled with a thick white beard and equally thick black eyebrows, and he was dressed in a long red coat trimmed with black fur. He was intimidating, to say the least. He stopped in the doorway and crossed his arms, his eyes looking from Jack to the damaged window, then to the mess on the floor, over to Elsa, wide-eyed and blinking, and then back again. Then, he did the last thing she expected him to do, which was laugh loudly. "Jack!" he said, throwing the doors shut behind himself without even turning to look at what he was doing. "I thought I saw flurries!"

"Hey, North. Sorry about the window," Jack said, leaning his staff up against a nearby table. "Ah, don't worry," the man, North, said, "the yetis will fix it. So! What can I do for you?"

Jack and Elsa looked at each other, then back at North. "We need your help, North," Jack said. "This is Elsa of Arendelle, she's...Show him, Elsa."  
Elsa blinked, then shook her head as she wrapped her arms around herself and took a few steps back. "No," she said, "no, I shouldn't. It's bad enough that I hurt Anna, I don't want to hurt anyone else. I can't."

"Arendelle, you say?" North asked. He grew thoughtful for a moment, then his face lit up. "Ah, yes! Princess Elsa! Asked for new pair of gloves for Christmas when sixteen, and for new dolls for sister Anna when twelve!" he said. Elsa blinked again, then frowned. "How did you know that?" she demanded, and North laughed. "I am Santa Claus," he said matter-of-factly, "is my job to know these things! What you need help with, Princess?"

"North, please, she's Arendelle's queen," Jack said. North smiled broadly. "Aaah, you are all grown up now!" he said. Jack seemed to be slowly losing his patience as he frowned and crossed his arms. "Listen, Nick, this is serious," he said, his voice becoming uncharacteristically stern. "Elsa's got powers, she can control ice and snow, just like I can, but she never learned how to control it. She completely froze Arendelle by mistake, and neither of us can thaw it out, she doesn't know how, and nothing I've tried has worked. And if that's not bad enough, she's scared that she might have hurt her sister on accident. She's freaking out, I have no idea what our next move should be, and we could really use some help right now, North, so whataya got for us?"  
"Tsar Lunar," North said. Jack and Elsa exchanged a confused look with one another. "Sorry," Jack said, "what?"

"Not a what," North told him, "a who. Tsar Lunar is the name of the Man in the Moon."  
Jack blinked. "Wait...you mean...he's an actual person?" he asked. "But...But I thought that he was just some...spiritual something-or-other that picks and chooses Guardians pretty much at random. He's real?"  
"Of course he's real!" North said loudly. "Before he was Man in Moon, he was Lunanoff Prince."

"Oh, North, you know that Jack still needs to be given his history lessons, cut him some slack!" a female voice said from the broken window. Before Elsa could turn to see who had spoken, a feather-covered woman with wings moving at the rapid pace of a hummingbird's had zipped up beside Jack and was hugging him tightly while a miniaturized version of her nuzzled its face up against his cheek. "Ah—! Hey, Tooth, didn't expect to see you here!" Jack said, then smiled at the smaller one and held up his hand to let it land in his palm. "Hi, Baby Tooth," he said. "Elsa, this is Toothiana and Baby Tooth. Guys, this is Queen Elsa, from Arendelle. Elsa, you would know these ladies as the Tooth Fairy. There's actually more than one; Tooth has a whole bunch of little Mini Fairies like Baby Tooth here, she tells them where to go, and they collect the teeth, then take them back to Tooth at her Palace to get stored in Memory Boxes."

Tooth gasped and smiled widely, flying over to Elsa and opening her mouth to peer in. "Oh, you've got such pretty teeth!" she gushed. "They're so white and clean and strong! You must take such good care of them, they're almost as pretty as Jack's! Oh, wow, talk about pearly whites, these are beautiful!" Elsa held up her hands, about to push Tooth off of herself, but then thought better of it and instead just held them in front of her own chest feeling helpless. Seeing her do this, Jack quickly took hold of Tooth's elbow and pulled her away from the queen. "Tooth," he said, "personal space, remember?" Tooth gasped, her hands flying up over her mouth in embarrassment. "Oh! I'm so sorry! Bad habit!" she said to Elsa, who laughed shyly. "Do you always do that when you meet someone?" she asked half-jokingly, and in response, Jack rolled his eyes as if to say, "Oh, you have no idea," which made Elsa giggle slightly.

"So," Tooth said brightly, her violet eyes wide, "what's this I hear about Tsar Lunar? Are we going to visit him or something? Oooh, is it finally time to introduce Jack to him in person?! Wait, why is this Elsa girl here? Oh, oh, oh, are we getting a new Guardian?! Is it her?! What can she do, what's her center?! Wait, Jack, she looks an awful lot like you, are you two related? Does she do the same stuff that you do? OMIGOSH, WAIT! Okay, okay, okay, don't tell me, let me guess! You two are in love, and you want Elsa to become immortal like Jack so you can be together forever and have cute little—"

"NO!" Jack and Elsa shouted at the same time, their eyes becoming nearly identical blue saucers as Jack waved his arms around like a madman. "No, that's not it at all!" Elsa said. "We barely even know each other, we just met like a week ago, he crash-landed onto my balcony! I mean...well...yes, I..." She trailed off, looking at her hands and gasping when she saw the frost crystals beginning to form on her fingertips. She curled her fingers in towards her palms before anyone else could notice, then held her hands against her breastbone and looked around as her breathing began to pick up speed. "I—I can't stay here," she said. Without waiting for a response from anyone, she turned and fled from the room, ignoring the sounds of Jack calling after her and Tooth's confused chattering.

* * *

**Yeah...I know Tooth wasn't really that chatty in the movie, but she just strikes me as having one of those personalities where she's just really friendly with everyone and loves to talk and get to know people and ask them questions about themselves, that sort of thing, you know? And part of that ended up manifesting itself as her being a bit of a chatterbox, so, yeah, lol. :P**

**I OWN NOTHING although I wouldn't mind having my own Baby Tooth to keep around as a friend! :)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Okay, so the plot of this chapter is kind of random and jumpy and not very well thought out, but Anna & Co., so yay for that! :D**

**...But also Pitch, which is not-so-yay. D:**

* * *

As soon as he recovered from his shock at Elsa's sudden flight from the room, Jack took off after her, snatching up his staff and flying to move as quickly as he could. It wasn't hard to figure out where she'd gone. Whether she realized it or not, she was leaving a trail of ice behind on the floor where she stepped, and as he followed her, Jack got rid of it, partly because he had this feeling in his gut that if Elsa knew about it, she'd only get even more upset than she already was, which was the last thing that was wanted or needed at the moment.

When he finally caught up to her at the top of a flight of stairs, she had only just finished throwing a door shut, but when he tried to open it, he found it obstructed by something on the other side, probably Elsa herself. "Elsa, open up, it's Jack," he said.  
"No!" she replied, voice muffled through the door. Jack sighed heavily. "Please? I just wanna talk."

"Go away, Jack."  
"Nope. I'm staying."  
"Stop trying to open the door!"  
"You'll have to move eventually, you know."  
"I spent nearly my entire childhood behind a closed door, you'd be surprised at how long I can stay like this."  
"Yeah, well, I certainly ain't gettin' any older, so I've got all the time in the world to just stand here and wait it out. AAAAAll the tiiiiime in the woooooorld..._Literally."_

There was a pause, and for a moment, he thought that maybe he had won and she was going to open the door and let him in. But then...

"I'll freeze the handle."  
"And then I'll unfreeze it."  
"I'll stab you with an icicle."  
"Not if I make an ice barrier first."  
"Then I'll knock you out with an iceball."  
"To which I will retaliate by putting a dome over myself."  
"And then I'll just shatter your stupid dome and jab you with the shards!"

Jack laughed.

"What so funny?!" Elsa demanded.  
"We are!" he said. "Listen to us, princess, we're arguing through a door about how we're going to use our powers to attempt murder on each other, it's ridiculous! Come on, I'm three hundred and seventeen, and you're what, like, twenty-one or something? We're better than this, we're mature, we can act like it! You're a mature adult, I'm a...somewhat mature adult, let's have a mature adult conversation without a door between us. Because, you know, that's what mature adults do. They talk to each other sans-doors and they figure stuff out, right? Right. So that's what we should be doing here, don't you think?" Another pause. "Aw, come on, princess! At least crack it a little, will ya?"

"Why do you do that?"  
"Why do I do what?"  
"Call me that."  
"What?"

"Princess. You were the one correcting North when he did it earlier, so why do you call me that?"  
"Well, like I said, I've had more than my fair share of visits to Arendelle before, and...one of my most vivid memories of the place is seeing two little girls playing together in the snow. One of them was...I guess maybe three-ish, and she had short little red pigtails and big, blue-green eyes, and the other one had a silver-blonde braid and clear blue eyes, and she was so pale, but they were both so happy. They were the daughters of the king and queen who were in power at the time, and...I dunno...I guess they just kinda reminded me of what it used to be like playing with my own sister back before I fell through that ice and got turned into the Spirit of Winter. After that, I would look for them sometimes, but I only saw them once or twice ever again. After that, they just sort of...disappeared. I never knew why, though."

Silence. Then, finally, the door opened just enough for Elsa to peek out at him with one eye. He smiled at her. "I...I remember those girls, too," Elsa said softly. "I've missed them a lot over the years. Spent a lot of time wishing that they would come back. But they never did. They never could." Jack nodded in understanding. "I know that now," he said quietly. Then he frowned. "Hey...Elsa? Are you sure that the Anna thing was all that happened earlier? I mean, I get that it scared you real bad, but...I dunno...you just seem...tense, I guess is the right word. Jumpy, even. Did something else happen before I got to you? Something you didn't tell me about?"

Elsa bit her lower lip, then sighed and opened the door the rest of the way. "It's silly," she said. "It was probably nothing, just my imagination playing tricks on my panicked mind, that's all."  
"Tell me anyway," he said, but Elsa shook her head. "No, it's stupid. You'll laugh at me," she told him. He raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms. "Elsa," he said, "I am a three hundred and seventeen-year-old spirit that can only be seen by people who believe that I exist. I'm friends with an overgrown Australian rabbit, a woman covered in feathers, Santa Claus, and a man made out of sand who doesn't speak. If that's not laughable, I don't know what is. Just try me. I dare you."

"Well...when you put it that way...Alright, fine, you win. It...It was...strange, to say the least. After Anna and the guy that she'd brought with her left, I was scared, so I yanked the necklace off and threw it on the floor and smashed it with my foot, just like you told me to when you gave it to me. And while I was waiting for you to come, I started pacing, because I started to get nervous, and the more time that passed without you getting there, the more I started thinking that maybe it hadn't worked, or that maybe you'd lied and wouldn't come after all, and all sorts of other things, and finally, there was this...At first I thought it was just a shadow. I mean, it was almost sunset by that point, and you know how the shadows get longer at that time of day, they can look weird and kind of creepy from certain angles, that's just how it is, you know? And so I saw this thing out of the corner of my eyes and didn't think anything of it at first because, like I said, I thought it was just one of those weird, late-in-the-day shadows. But then, it...I...This is going to sound crazy, but...I could have sworn that I saw it start to sort of...rise up from the ground. The shape it took as it rose, it looked sort of like someone had been laying on the floor underneath a big black blanket and was starting to stand up, but then right as I was about to go take a closer look, I heard Marshmallow, the golem, and I went to see what was happening, and there you were. I didn't think it was important, so I didn't mention it before. Like I said, it was probably just my imagination. Jack? Jack, are you okay? You look...pale, even for you. Is something wrong? Jack? Hello? Are you even listening to me? Snap out of it, Frost!"

While listening to Elsa's story, Jack had indeed become paler than he usually was, and his crystal blue eyes were enormous, staring blankly ahead into space. He began to shake his head slowly. "No," he said in a low voice, "no. It can't be. It's not possible. We took care of this already, it can't be happening again so soon! Elsa, this is not good, this is not good at all. Crap, this is probably why Tooth's here, isn't it? Which means that Bunny and Sandy are probably coming, too, and then I'm gonna have to explain who you are, and you're gonna have to tell them what you just told me, and then we also still have to figure out what to do about the whole Anna thing, plus we still need to find a way to unfreeze Arendelle, and—"

He broke off suddenly and grabbed Elsa by the wrist, pulling her down the stairs with him and back to where North and Tooth were, coming into the room just in time to see Bunnymund pop out of one of his holes and Sandy take shape from the cloud of Dreamsand that was there. "Guys!" Jack said. "We've got a problem! A really tall, really black, and probably really angry and revenge-driven problem! Two more seconds,_ two more seconds,_ and who knows what he would have done to Elsa?! He could have turned her into a Fearling, or worse!"

"Jack, what are you talking about? Who is he, what's a Fearling?" Elsa asked nervously. Jack whirled around to face her, his staff clattering to the ground as his hands flew to her shoulders. "He's Pitch!" he said. "Pitch Black, the King of Nightmares! The Fearlings are his minions, and he's probably really, _really_ mad at us for what we did to him, be grateful that he didn't get the chance to get his hands on you, or else...well...I don't know, but it wouldn't have been pretty, trust me."

"But what would Pitch want with Elsa?" Tooth asked.  
"She was really scared, Tooth. She'd just hurt her sister by accident and was freaking out. Terrified, even, weren't you, Elsa?" Jack said, and Elsa nodded in response. Bunnymund frowned and crossed his arms. "Who is this and what's she doing here?" he demanded.

"Queen Elsa of Arendelle," the girl in question said. "I'm here because Jack brought me. I don't quite know why yet. He said that North could help. I'm sorry, Jack, I...Who is this you're talking about again?" Jack, Tooth, and North all exchanged a look with each other, then Tooth zipped over to Elsa's side, putting an arm around her shoulders and taking hold of her hand. "North, you explain the Tsar Lunar thing to Jack," she said, "I'll take Elsa to see the Globe and tell her about Pitch. Well...as much as I can, anyway."

As Tooth began to lead her from the room, Elsa looked over her shoulder at Jack. When he saw the look in her eyes, he picked up his staff and went after the girls, stopping Tooth with a hand on her shoulder. "I'll take her," he said. "I don't think it's a good idea for me to leave her right now, not while she's like this. It's...emotion, right, Elsa? From what I understand about your powers, it's emotion that causes it, right?"

"Yes. Well, influences, anyway. That's why I lose control when I get scared or upset," Elsa explained. "I...I guess that's why I accidentally froze Arendelle. I was so terrified and upset, and—" Jack put a hand on her shoulder. "It wasn't your fault, princess," he said.

"Wait a minute, she did _what_ to Arendelle?!" Bunny shouted. He leaped forward, boomerangs drawn, but Jack got into his path with his staff gripped in both hands and held in a battle-ready position. "She didn't do it on purpose!" he said. "They were calling her a monster, she was scared! Give the girl a break, Bunny, she never learned how to control her powers, nobody ever bothered teaching her or helping her or anything, she's twenty-one years old and I am gonna have to teach her _everything_ about how they work, do you have any idea how difficult that's going to be for the both of us? _Extremely_ difficult. Besides, since when do you care so much about Arendelle, huh? What's so important about it to you?"  
"It's supposed to be summer there! Summer, spring, not much difference, mate!"

"BOYS, STOP FIGHTING!" Tooth yelled, putting herself between them and shoving them apart with a hand to each chest. "Jack, while it is very chivalrous of you to defend Elsa, there is no need for you two to beat each other up over it! There are _ladies_ present, boys, so keep it together, I mean, honestly, for the love of Manny!"

"Tooth, I need you to shut up."  
"Actually, Jack, I don't think I—"  
"Toothiana! Be quiet for two minutes, please!"

There was silence for a moment or so as everyone watched Jack. He closed his eyes and put a hand on his head. "Elsa, we have to go, now. It's gotten worse in Arendelle, there's a huge blizzard, the fjord is starting to crack...It's really bad. We have to go, we have to do something before someone gets seriously hurt, or worse, killed." He looked up and met her eyes. "How do you know?" she asked.

"Because," he said, holding his hand out to her, "I'm the Spirit of Winter. I know these things. Now come on, princess. Let's go find your sister and make sure she's okay."

* * *

"It's okay, Anna, I've got you."  
"You came back. I thought that—"

"ANNA!"

The redhead looked up suddenly, struggling to see through the blizzard. "Kristoff, did you hear that? It sounded like Elsa," she said. Kristoff frowned. "Yes," he said, "but you don't think she would actually—"  
"I'M HERE, ELSA!" Anna shouted, and after a moment or so, a figure emerged from the raging storm, her platinum blonde hair and long cape whipping in the wind behind her. When she caught sight of Anna and Kristoff huddled up together on the fjord, she wrapped her arms around herself, bent her head foward, and ran against the winds until she reached them, falling down to her knees beside them and hugging her little sister tightly. "Anna, are you okay? I thought I hurt you earlier!" she said, raising her voice somewhat to be heard over the noise of the blizzard.

"You froze my heart on accident, but it's okay, Kristoff saved me!" Anna replied. Elsa put a hand on Kristoff's shoulder. "Thank you!" she said.  
"Don't mention it!" he told her. "Although if you could put a stop to this blizzard, I'll call it even!"

"I can't, I don't know how! If I did, I would have already—JACK, WHERE ARE YOU GOING?!" she called.  
"Elsa, who are you talking to?" Anna asked, but Elsa was already on her feet moving against the wind and into the storm, shielding her face with one arm to keep the snow out of her eyes. She had barely gone five feet, though, when all of the snow suddenly went up in a sort of reverse mushroom cloud, then came down around them with a massive _whump_ sound. As the remaining snow began to settle like the dust from an explosion, Elsa lowered her arm and Anna and Kristoff both raised their heads to follow the queen's gaze. There, on the ice in the middle of the fjord, they could just make out the shape of someone crouching down on one knee with their head bent forward, one palm flat against the ground, and the other hand gripping what looked like a shepard's staff. Elsa gasped, her eyes widening as she picked up her skirt and ran towards the figure as fast as her legs could carry her. Anna and Kristoff exchanged a confused look, then got up and followed after her as quickly as they could, occasionally having to pause for a moment to help or catch each other when they slipped on the ice.

By the time they caught up, Elsa was kneeling beside the figure, who they could now see was a boy about Elsa's age. He was barefoot and wore brown pants that stopped at about his knees and a dark blue hooded sweater with frost around the collar, and he had a simple brown bag slung across his body. His hood was raised at the moment, so they couldn't see his face, but his legs and hands were nearly the exact same pale shade as Elsa's skin. "I thought you said you couldn't fix it," Elsa was saying when they reached the pair. "I said I couldn't unfreeze everything," he said in response, "not that I couldn't stop a blizzard."  
"But I don't understand. If I froze Arendelle and created the blizzard, how is it you could fix one, but not the other?"  
"Look, princess, all I know right now is that putting an end to that storm took a lot out of me, it was huge."

"Elsa, who is this?" Anna asked. Elsa glanced at her sister briefly. "This is Jack," she said. The boy looked up at Anna with striking blue eyes that held a look of surprise. "You can see me?" he asked.

"Of course we can," Kristoff said, "why wouldn't we?" Jack blinked at him and seemed to consider this. "Long story," he said finally, then gripped his staff with both hands and got to his feet. "Are you sure that's a good idea right now?" Elsa asked him, but he only shrugged. "Hey, as long as I've got my staff, I'll be fine," he said, his tone making it sound as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. He looked around, a confused frown crossing his face as he lowered his hood to reveal silver-white hair that contrasted sharply with his dark eyebrows, not entirely unlike how Elsa's hair and eyebrows set each other off. "Anybody know why a reindeer and a...whatever that is would be coming this way?" he asked. Everyone looked to where he was pointing. "That's Sven and Olaf," Anna said, "they're with us. Olaf and I got separated in the blizzard, and I guess so did Kristoff and Sven." Kristoff nodded his confirmation to this. "Uh-huh," the boy said, "and what about him?"

Anna gasped, her hands flying up over her mouth. "That's Hans!" she said. "He's bad news!" Elsa frowned, clearly puzzled by this. "But I thought that—"  
"So did I!" her sister interrupted. "But, see, the frozen heart thing, only an act of true love could save me, so Kristoff brought me back so Hans could kiss me, because, you know, the whole true love's kiss and all that, but when I explained it to Hans, he just said, 'If only there was someone who loved you,' and when I said I thought that he did, he just kind of laughed. It turns out that he only wanted to marry me because, see, the thing about Hans is that he's got twelve older brothers, so he's thirteenth in line for the throne in the Southern Isles, so he said that he knew he had to marry into it somewhere. He said that you were preferable being the heir and all, but since, and I quote, 'nobody was getting anywhere' with you, I would have to do, and I...Like he said, I was so desperate that I...didn't think...And so, anyway, he said he thought he'd have to 'stage an accident' for you, but then your powers came out, and...yeah...so he left me to die, and I probably would have if it wasn't for Olaf and Kristoff. So, anyway, yeah, he's bad news, we should—"

She was cut off by Sven making a loud, happy noise as he and Olaf ran across the distance that remained between them and the four humans, slipping clumsily on the ice in his eagerness to reach Kristoff. "Elsa's back!" Olaf said happily, and then he saw Jack and his smile got wider. "Hi! I'm Olaf, and I like warm hugs!" he said. Jack raised an eyebrow curiously, but smiled and knelt down to Olaf's level. "Nice to meet you, Olaf," he said, "I'm Jack." Olaf looked like he was about to say more, but before he could, the sound of cracking ice made everybody turn, only to see that Hans was getting closer, and he didn't look very happy. "Jack, how are we going to get out of here?" Elsa asked. "You can't carry all of us, and he'll be able to follow if we just head for the woods."

Jack smirked at her, his eyes glinting with mischief. "Oh, please, you honestly think I was dumb enough to bring you back here without a plan to use in case of an emergency? That stings. I mean, really, princess, have a little faith! I told you North would help us, and he will, just relax, watch, and learn." Having said this, Jack reached into his bag and pulled out a snowglobe. Before anyone could question him or his sanity, he threw it onto the ground and it smashed into a million little pieces, and in almost the same instant, a glowing white orb appeared in front of them. "Everybody through the portal," Jack said.  
"What portal?" Anna asked, and Jack turned her head towards the orb. _"That_ portal!" he said. "Go, all of you, now, it'll take you to safety!"

A determined look on her face, Elsa pushed aside her fears of hurting them for the time being and grabbed Kristoff and Anna by the wrists, going headfirst into the portal with them in tow. Seeing them disappear suddenly, Olaf and Sven both let out surprised noises, then went scrambling in after them. Jack threw one last glance in Hans's direction only long enough to smirk in satisfaction at the shocked look on the prince's face, then dove into the portal just before it closed.

* * *

Hans couldn't believe it. He'd been that close, _that close_ to getting both Arendelle girls out of the way, and then...  
"What _was_ that?" he said to the empty room. "Did Elsa do that? How?! Since when can she do that?! What _was_ it!?" He gasped when he heard dark laughter that seemed to come from everywhere at once, his hand instinctively going for his sword. "Who's there?" he demanded. "I order you to show yourself immediately!"

"Hello there, Hans," a voice said, and Hans jumped in surprise, nearly dropping his sword as he whirled around to face the person speaking, only to freeze momentarily at the strange appearance of the stranger. He was literally tall and dark, and his glossy black hair was done in slick spikes coming from the back of his head. He had dull, pale gray skin and his eyes were quite possibly the strangest that Hans had ever seen; they were a silver-golden color and they reminded the prince of an eclipse, and his long black robe obscured his body much in the way of a shadow. When he smiled, Hans could see that his teeth were sharp and pointed, not entirely unlike an animal's.

"Who are you?" he asked. The stranger chuckled.  
"I am the monster under the beds of children. I am everybody's deepest fears...including _yours,_ Prince Hans of the Southern Isles."  
"Y-Your _name,_ sir," Hans said, trying to keep himself composed for the sake of appearance, if nothing else. Again, the stranger chuckled. "Oh, I have my fair share of monikers, just like anyone else," he said. "but you, Hans, may call me Pitch. Pitch Black, to be more specific."

"And what is it that you want...Pitch?"  
"I have a, shall we say, business proposition for you. That thing that you saw earlier, that was a portal, and Elsa wasn't the one who summoned it up. You couldn't see him because you don't believe in him, but he was there, trust me. His name is Jack Frost, and yes, that would be as in nipping at your nose. You see, Hans, it seems that Elsa...and now Anna and her little friends, as well...have allied themselves with Jack and his friends, a group called the Guardians. You want Elsa and Anna out of the way so you can have Arendelle, and I want revenge on Jack and the other Guardians. If we work together to defeat them, just imagine the possibilities. We could go down in history, Hans, just think of it. We would be feared by everyone, the whole world. You would have Arendelle, and I would finally have the new era I've been trying to get."

"New era?"  
"Oh, you know, prosperity and all that. See, the Guardians, they want to keep the world the way it is now, but me—Well, let's just say for now that it pains my heart knowing that I have all these riches and treasures and things that I could be sharing with everyone to make them happier, and Jack and his friends keep getting in my way. I mean, sure, I came close during my last encounter with them, and I would have won, too, but then that blasted Sandy had to make his big 'heroic' comeback after I thought for sure that I'd defeated him, and well, things just fell apart for me after that. Once they had him back, things tipped back to their favor, and after that, I just didn't stand a chance, even as powerful as I am, not to brag or anything. But I'm getting off the subject here. So, Hans, whataya say? You wanna be heroes together, or what?"

* * *

**The exchange between Jack and Elsa with the door just popped into my head and I thought it was just the cutest, funniest thing, so I HAD to include it! Oh, and for anyone wondering, an "iceball" is pretty much what it sounds like; it's a snowball made out of ice. The thing about them is that if you get hit with one, you can get hurt pretty bad, and if you get hit in the HEAD, it could even knock you out depending on how tightly it's packed and stuff like that. **

**UNLESS YOU ARE EITHER JACK OR ELSA, I DO NOT RECOMMEND THROWING ICEBALLS AT ANYBODY, AND THEN AGAIN, YOU SHOULD PROBABLY ONLY THROW THEM AT EACH OTHER, BECAUSE SOMEONE COULD END UP GETTING HURT OTHERWISE, WHICH IS, OF COURSE, A BAD THING THAT FALLS INTO THE CATEGORY OF "DO NOT WANT." SO DON'T DO IT, KIDS. DON'T.  
**

**AND OOOOOH, CLIFFIE! XD**

**...I still don't own anything, but I'm sick, so I could definitely go for one of Olaf's warm hugs to help me feel better right now. **

**And yes, in case you hadn't noticed, this IS sort of an AU for the Frozen universe, but, you know, that's the plot that appeared when I got this idea, so *shrugs***

**And also, the reason I have Pitch (very obviously, to us) lying about his intentions to Hans is because I think that deep down, Hans really is a good guy. There are a lot of reasons, many of which are covered in the "Hansalysis" by Emma on her Tumblr. If you would like to read it, she can be found at:**

**emmasdisneyworld dot tumblr dot com, and the Hansalysis can be found at emmasdisneyworld dot tumblr dot com forward slash post forward slash 68812630628 forward slash the-hansalysis**

**I very highly recommend reading this regardless of your opinions on Hans, because it really does get you thinking, Emma handled it beautifully and it's so well-written, you should go check it out. :)**

**Now, OFF TO WRITE CHAPTER FOUR!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Okay, this chapter's short, and the first half is kind of weird and slightly awkward (I think so, at least, idk), but the second half is where the REAL Jelsa starts! *happy dance***

**OH! And guess what? JACK CAME AND VISITED MY AREA! I'm out of school today because there is SNOOOOOOW OUTSIDE! :D *even happier dance* And it's rare that we get snow in my area, because I live in Texas, so this is kind of a big deal for me, so THANK YOU, JACK, I LOVE YOU EVEN MORE THAN I ALREADY DID FOR THIS! (My dog says thanks, too, this is the first time she's experienced snow, and she loves it so far, so yeah, lol)**

* * *

On the other side of the portal, Jack landed on Olaf, who landed on Sven, who was on top of Kristoff, who had fallen on Anna, and beneath her, on her stomach at the bottom of the pile, was Elsa. "Guys," she said, "unless you want to end up frozen solid, I would suggest that you get off of me in the next sixty seconds." Jack let out a yelp and leapt into the air, quickly followed by everyone else, allowing Elsa to get to her feet and push her hair back from her eyes. "Thank you," she said, then frowned when she noticed that Jack was missing. She looked around for a moment, then saw him on a railing high up, perched on the balls of his feet with his staff in both hands and one elbow resting on his knee. When he realized she was watching him, he flashed a lopsided grin, and she couldn't help but smile back.

"Woah," Anna said, "Elsa, have you seen this thing?"  
"That's the Globe of Belief," Jack told her from his perch. "Each one of those lights shows the location of a child who believes, and as long as those lights stay on, my friends and I will be around to keep all those little lights safe. To...well...guard them. After all, we're not called the Guardians for nothing. And—"

He cut off suddenly, his eyes fixating on a spot over the top of the Globe as his smile faded. Elsa was the first to turn around to see what he was looking at, but whatever it was, it was gone before she or any of the others could see it. It seemed to have shaken him pretty bad, though, because the very next thing he did was leap from his perch and fly to one of the higher levels of the Workshop. "Sandy, North! Guys, we've got a problem! Possibly two, I'm not totally sure yet!"

"He's flying," Kristoff said bluntly, his jaw on the floor and eyes popping out of their sockets. "How is he flying?"  
"Oh, it's just something he does," Elsa said, "you'll get used to it. I'd be more worried about the giant rabbit, actually."  
Anna and Kristoff looked at each other, then at Elsa. "What giant rabbit?" they asked simultaneously. Elsa pointed a finger upwards. _"That_ giant rabbit," she said, but before either her sister or Kristoff could see what she was pointing at, Jack had returned to his perch and Bunny was nose-to-nose with Anna, making the redhead gasp in surprise and draw back slightly. "Princess Anna who loves Easter," he said. "If you're not a Believer, I'm a kangaroo."

"You are a kangaroo, kangaroo," Jack said snarkily, and Bunny shot a glare in his direction. "Anna," he said to the princess, "meet my friend E. Aster Bunnymund, a.k.a. the Easter Bunny. Hey, lookit that, he likes you! Wow, that's rare! Last time he liked someone this much, it was Sophie Bennett, which was, like, four years ago."

"Ooooooh, ankle-biter, that was so cute!" Tooth gushed as she and Baby Tooth zipped down towards Anna.  
"Elsa, is this your sister?" she asked. Elsa nodded, and Tooth gasped. "Omigosh, her teeth are pretty, too!"  
"Who are you guys talking to?" Kristoff asked, and everyone turned to look at him, to which he shrugged in response. "What?" he said. Jack quirked an eyebrow. "Wait, so you don't see anyone else?" he asked. Kristoff frowned questioningly. "No," he said slowly, "just you, Olaf, Sven, and the girls. Are you feeling okay? Should I be worried?" Jack burst into laughter unexpectedly. "Oh, this is _great!"_ he said. "Wow, is this a first! Bunny, are you hearing this? Who's the one without Believers now, huh? Take that, kangaroo! Wait, wait, wait, wait. So, Kristoff, what you're saying here is that you believe in Jack Frost, but not Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, or the Sandman, is that it?"

"Um, I harvest and sell_ ice_ for a living. Of course I would want to believe that Jack Frost is real."  
"Oh, you don't just want to believe, you do believe, trust me on that."  
"How do you know if I believe in him or not? You don't know me."  
"Because you're talking to him. Hi, name's Jack Frost."

Tooth crossed her arms indignantly and frowned. "Great!" she said. "So I can't even carry on a conversation with this guy?! But he's so_ pretty!"_ Everyone who could hear her laughed loudly, and because he was standing so close to Anna, Kristoff jumped, startled by the sound. "What?! What's so funny?!" he asked, looking around at everyone that he could see in search of an answer. "My friend Tooth thinks you're pretty," Jack told him. "Toothiana, that is. You would have heard of her as the Tooth Fairy. She's upset that she can't talk to you because you don't believe in her, that's all. Hey, Tooth, how does his mouth look?"  
"It. Looks._ Amazing!_ Elsa, Anna, one of you has to ask him what kind of floss he uses, I mean, wow!"

"Hey, Kristoff, what kind of floss do you use for your teeth?" Anna asked. He raised an eyebrow. "Um, I don't?" he said. Tooth blinked and seemed about to speak, but instead, she let out a yelp and clutched her ankle, then looked down to find that Olaf was holding one of her golden feathers. When he realized she was watching him, the snowman looked up and smiled, dropping the feather as he spread his arms out. "Hi! I'm Olaf, and I like warm hugs!" he said brightly. Tooth blinked and looked from him to her ankle, then smiled. "Aw, he's so cute!" she said. "It's okay about the feather, little guy, you can keep it! My name's Toothiana, but you can call me Tooth. Oh, and this is Baby Tooth! Aww, look, she likes your carrot!"

Kristoff stared in obvious confusion and concern as Olaf laughed and grabbed at his nose, not knowing that Baby Tooth was going up and down the length of it and tickling the snowman. Sven grunted and shoved his nose into Kristoff's elbow. "What?" the blonde asked. Sven gave him a look, and Kristoff sighed, then put on his reindeer voice. "'You're being weird.' I'm being weird? Please, Sven, you guys are the ones talking to imaginary people, you're the weird ones, knock it off! 'But Kristoff—'"

Jack burst into laughter. "Are you _talking_ to yourself down there?"  
"Uh—Wha—No. I'm talking to Sven. Duh. You guys are talking to yourselves."  
From where he hovered beside Jack, Sandy crossed his arms indignantly and frowned as if to say that he took offense at this. "Hey," Jack said to him, "take it easy, buddy. He can't see you, remember?"  
"What is this problem, Jack?" North asked, and the Winter Spirit's face darkened somewhat as he pointed to a spot just above the Globe. "I could have sworn I saw black sand right there," he said, "and earlier, when Elsa and I were out on the fjord in Arendelle with Kristoff and Anna, I thought I felt...something. Something close to that...unexplainable sense of darkness that's always there when he's around, you know? And the weird thing about that is that I only felt it when the ice started to crack when this Hans guy was trying to get to us. I dunno, North, I just...I have this feeling in the pit of my stomach that something's about to happen. I don't know what, but something...something big. Bigger than all of us in this room put together, and...bigger than last time, as impossible as that sounds."

"OW, SOMETHING'S PULLING MY HAIR!" Kristoff shouted, and everyone turned to look at him. "That would be Baby Tooth," Jack said slowly, then turned back to North. "Anyway, like I was saying, I've just...I've got a really bad feeling, North. I don't think it's safe for them to go back to Arendelle. Any of them. Especially Elsa. Anna said that Hans said that he would 'stage a little accident' for Elsa, and..." He trailed off into a sigh, shaking his head before taking off from his perch. He landed beside Elsa and held a hand out to her. "Come on, princess," he said, "let's go start your first lesson, shall we?"

"I won't touch you, Jack. I don't want to hurt you," Elsa said. Wordlessly, Jack held his staff out to Anna, who hesitated for a moment before taking it from him. Jack then turned back to Elsa and gently took hold of one of her wrists, then placed the palm of his other hand against hers. "I'm cold, too," he said, "remember?"

Everyone became strangely transfixed on the pair as Elsa slowly lifted her other hand to place it against Jack's. "You're cold, too," she murmured, and he nodded. "Yeah," he said softly. "We can be cold together, princess. You just have to let me help you learn how." Their fingers locked together. "No flying?" she asked. He shook his head. "No flying. Just snow and frost and ice and you and me and my staff." After a moment, Elsa nodded slowly. "Okay," she said quietly. Jack turned to Anna, who handed him back his staff. "We'll be outside if anybody needs us," he said, and then he led Elsa by the hand from the room.

* * *

"Okay," Jack said, "first, I want you to tell me everything you can about your powers. The more I know, the easier it'll be to help you."  
"Not much, honestly," Elsa replied. "I mean, there's what I told you about what happened when Anna and I were children. The leader of the trolls, he said that my power would only grow, and that there's beauty in it, but also danger, and that fear would be my enemy. He told me that I couldn't let it control me, I had to learn to control it. My father said that he was sure I could learn, and he said that he and Mother would protect me, and they did. Like you guessed last week, that's why they closed the gates. They minimized the staff and limited my contact with others as much as possible, including Anna. She and I used to share a bedroom, but after what happened, I moved into a different one down the hall. That was where I spent most of my childhood and adolescence, behind the closed door of my room. One day, my father brought me a pair of gloves and told me they would help, and they did. That was when I started wearing them all the time. That was when I started telling myself, 'Conceal, don't feel.' I've spent all these years pushing Anna away to protect her because I didn't want her getting hurt again. Emotion influences it, like I said earlier."  
"And you don't have an object or anything that you can channel it with?" Jack asked.

"I...I don't think I understand what you mean," Elsa said.  
"Well, take me for example. My staff is a conduit of my power. Originally, I thought it was the source, but it's not, it's just something that I use to help me with it. The power itself is inside of me, and the staff is, shall we say, a conductor of sorts that lets me channel it. Like, the last time we faced Pitch, he kidnapped Baby Tooth at one point and I followed them to Antarctica to save her. He managed to get a hold of my staff by threatening to kill Baby Tooth if I didn't give it to him, and he snapped it in half, and I was left at the bottom of a crevice with the broken halves, Baby Tooth, and my Memory Box, which I'm sure you'll learn all about from Tooth later. Anyway, like I said, I was down there with only Baby Tooth for company, and this was before I realized that the staff was only a conduit and not the actual source of my power, but I figured it out when I was able to repair it just by the force of sheer will. But you don't have anything like that, do you?"

Elsa shook her head and held her hands up, palms facing him. "No," she said, "just my bare hands and my emotions." Jack grew thoughtful for a moment or so, then his eyes moved towards the ground, then back up to Elsa. "Relax," he said, "and clear your mind. Just focus on me, and see if you can do what I do." He waited for her to respond, but when she only stood there watching him, he laid his staff down in the snow and took a single step forward. When his foot touched the ground, there wasn't even time for a print to appear in the snow before ice spread out in all directions with beautiful swirling patterns. It formed the shape of a snowflake, with Jack's bare foot in the center of it, and then he turned to look at Elsa. "Think you can do that, princess?" he asked. She looked at his creation, then took a deep breath and closed her eyes before placing one foot in front of herself. When she opened her eyes, she gasped lightly. "I did it," she said quietly.

Jack smiled at her. "I knew you could," he said. "Now, you see how that point on yours and this one on mine are facing each other? I want you to walk to the end of your point, then come over here to mine, and see if you can connect them as you walk. Make it into a path." Elsa nodded, then went to the end of her point, took another deep breath, let it out slowly, and closed her eyes again before taking the first step onto the snow, ice moving outwards from her foot and towards Jack's snowflake. She moved slowly, and Jack stood watching her the entire time. There was a sudden gust of wind, and even though it only lasted for a brief moment or two, time seemed to slow down for him. Flurries of snow were sent up around her as the skirt of her dress swirled around her ankles and her cape flared out behind her, the loose strands of platinum blonde hair that she kept swept back on top of her head getting lifted up momentarily before one of them came down to hang at the side of her face.

That was when it really hit him for the first time just how beautiful this girl was.

As she began moving more towards the center of the snowflake where he stood, he picked up his staff, then reached out and put a hand on her arm, making her stop and open her eyes, then turn around to look at her work as she brushed the rogue strand of hair back into place. She looked at him, a small but hopeful smile on her face. "Now," he said, "we're just gonna walk. We're just gonna walk around this mountain, and we're gonna leave a path of ice behind ourselves so we know where we've been already and don't end up retracing our steps until we're ready to come back. And we're gonna make things as we go, little snow sculptures and stuff. That's it. No stress, no fear, no pressure, no nothing. Just you and me, walking around this mountain, playing with the snow and leaving behind a trail of ice, totally relaxed. Sound good?" Elsa nodded and took the hand he held out to her, letting him lead since this was her first time on the mountain and he was already familiar with it.

While they walked, Jack began asking her a little more about herself and what her life had been like growing up, and Elsa slowly began to warm up to the conversation a little more with each of his questions before finally turning it around and putting him in the spotlight as the topic. He told her that his sister's name had been Clara, and that she'd been eight at the time Jack had fallen through the ice. And the more they talked and got to know each other, the more Jack's inexplicable need to be near her grew. He began to think that maybe it wasn't just because she was like him, maybe it was something more. But he still couldn't figure out what. And Elsa, for her part, just began to trust him more and more until she began to feel that same need for closeness.

"Three hundred years," she said, "it's...incredible. I could barely stand sixteen years of solitude, I can't imagine how you did it, Jack."  
"I'm not saying it was easy," he told her, making a snowman roughly Olaf's size with a wave of his hand, "because it wasn't. Far from it, actually. I used to get so mad and frustrated with the Man in the Moon, I would look up at night and practically beg him for some kind of help. I'd ask him to tell me if I was doing something wrong, saying how I'd tried everything to be seen by someone, but nothing ever worked. I'd basically demand for him to tell me why it was he'd put me there, put me _here._ Because like I said, all he ever told me was my name. I was on my own after that. It was...frustrating, to say the least, and sometimes I'd just get so fed up with it all and come close to tears because I was just so alone and confused." He paused and seemed to think about something for a moment. "Elsa, can I ask you something?"

"Sure, what is it?"  
"Why is it you believe?"  
"In just you, or all of you?"  
"I don't know. Either. Both."

"Well, I believe in everyone else because it's hard not to when you live with someone who's as much of a child at heart as Anna is. But you...I don't really know, to be honest. I guess that it's because...I heard stories about you growing up, and there just has always been a part of me that's wanted to believe that you were out there somewhere. I mean, think about it, Jack, if you were a kid with the power to create and control ice, and you had no idea why or how you had them, and you'd been told stories about a guy with the same powers as you, wouldn't you want to believe in him? I remember that when I was younger, sometimes when I couldn't sleep at night, I would sit by my window, especially during the winter when it was snowing, and I would imagine what you were like, and I would imagine what it would be like to meet you and talk to you. To have someone who understood."

Jack stopped walking and turned to face her, putting a hand on her shoulder. "And now you can stop imagining," he said. She smiled and nodded. "Now I can stop," she agreed. They stood there like that for another moment or so, and Jack's hand slowly made its way from her shoulder to her cheek with both of them barely even realizing it until the next thing either of them knew, his lips were against her cheek.

After a moment, he drew back slowly and they stared at each other with their pairs of nearly identical blue eyes. Jack blinked and looked away. "I...I'm sorry," he said, "that was unca—" He broke off in surprise when she suddenly leaned forward and returned the kiss, though hers only lasted for a brief second before she pulled back and looked down, blushing lightly. "It's getting dark," she said quietly after a moment. "We should start heading back." Before Jack had any time to respond, she had turned and was making her way back along the trail of ice they had left, her cape trailing lightly across the patterned surface behind her and glittering softly in the dying sunlight. Jack stayed behind for a moment, just watching her as she walked.

He lightly touched his fingertips to the place she had kissed, feeling a dull tingling sensation on the surface of his skin where her lips had been.

He smiled faintly, then began following her back.

* * *

***whispers* Psst! Hey, Jack, Elsa, guess what? You know why you guys wanna be near each other?**

**BECAUSE YOU'RE FALLING IN_ LUUUUUUUUURV,_ THAT'S WHY! XD**

**But in all seriousness, I'm going to try and have the next chapter with a better developed plot and stuff, so it might take longer to get up than the others have so far, just fyi. **

**And yes, Kristoff is on the border of Believer and non-believer! See, the way I figure it, like he said himself in the movie, ice is his life, so if you were him, don't you think you'd wanna believe in Jack, too? But the others, he's kind of grown out of believing in them. But then Anna, like Elsa said, is such a child at heart, that she's never stopped believing, so she can see them. Olaf is Olaf, so he would _have_ to be a Believer, and since Sven is a reindeer, he's able to see them regardless of belief or the lack thereof, because remember, in RoTG, Jamie's Greyhound Abby is able to see Bunny, so from there it's logical to assume that most if not all animals can see them, and that would, of course, include Sven.**

**So yeah. That's my logic on the whole belief vs. non-belief thing for everybody. Don't worry, though, Kristoff will come around eventually, though it will take some heavy persuasion, especially from Sven's part. n_n**

**Oh, and the bit about Jack being "cold, too" is an idea I got from the picture I used for this story's cover image! If you look at the zoomed in version, you might be able to see that there are words on it, them talking, and it's Elsa saying, "You're cold, too" to which Jack responds with a simple, "Yeah." I thought that and their pose in the picture could be worked in for a cute moment, so there you have it. :)**

**'Til next time!**


	5. Chapter 5

**UGH, okay, it took a while longer than I'd wanted it to, but I finally got this figured out. Don't be surprised if the chapters start coming at a slower rate than they have been up until now, because I am REALLY glad with the way this one turned out, and it wouldn't be like this if I hadn't taken as long as I did to flesh it out and stuff. **

**Um, one thing I am a little upset with is my slight continuity error. Remember how at the end of the last chapter, Elsa said it was getting dark? Well, in this chapter, about midway through, I guess it would be, POP! the sun magically comes up! So I dunno, I guess...blame the plot holes? n_n" *hides under desk in shame***

**PS: I DISCLAIM! (sopleasedontsueme!)**

* * *

Jack knew something was up when they got back as soon as he saw Tooth, and his face darkened. "What's going on?" he asked. North put one massive hand on Jack's shoulder and began guiding him into the room where Bunny and Sandy were waiting. "We need to talk," North said, "just Guardians for now." Jack glanced back at Elsa, who blinked, obviously confused and concerned, then went off with Anna for the time being, and Jack went with North, Tooth closing the doors behind them as she followed.

"What is it, guys?" he asked. The others looked at each other, then Bunny nodded to Tooth, who sighed heavily. "Okay," she said, "I sent some of the girls to Arendelle just to check out the situation and see what's going on. The good news is, while things are still frozen, there don't appear to be any storms or other imminent dangers besides the cold that are related to the weather. The bad news is, it seems like you were right, Jack. They found Pitch in the castle talking to someone that he was addressing as Hans, and I'm assuming it was the same Hans you mentioned earlier. From what we can tell based on what the girls heard, this guy has teamed up with Pitch, and they're planning something, not just against us, but also against Anna and Elsa. You were right. It's not safe for them to go back."

He frowned, his dark eyebrows knitting together as his forehead creased in a mixture of thought and worry. "These girls are special," he said finally, "both of them. Not just because they're royalty, and not just because of Elsa's powers. I can't quite put my finger on it, but there's just something about them...Whatever happens, we can't let Pitch get his hands on either of them, and Hans also has to be kept away. We have to protect them, we have to—"  
There was a scream from somewhere outside the room, and then the floor began to frost over. "Jack—"  
"That's not me, Bunny..."

"JACK, NORTH, SOMEBODY! HELP!"

"Elsa, Anna!"

All five Guardians spurred into motion at almost the exact same time. Jack threw the doors to the room open with a blast of icy air, and the group went racing out to see what was going on. "Elsa?!" Jack called. "Anna, Kristoff?! Somebody say something, we don't know where you are!" Even as he spoke, a trail of ice began to form along the baseboard of the wall. Sandy tugged on Jack's sleeve and pointed to it. "Guys, look! Everybody follow the ice, it'll lead us right to them!" They took off down the hall with North and Jack in the lead. The ice lead them to the Globe Room, where they all froze in their tracks at the sight they were met with, Jack's staff almost flying out of his grasp as his arms went reeling to keep himself from losing his balance from the abrupt stop.

His eyes narrowed. _"Pitch."_

"Oh, hello, Jack, it's nice to see you again," the Boogeyman said. Kristoff, Sven, and Olaf were nowhere to be seen, and Elsa and Anna were both standing rooted to their spots with their eyes wide. The air was so cold that breath came out in clouds, no doubt because of Elsa's fear, but Pitch seemed to be completely unaware. "What did you do with Kristoff and the others?" Tooth demanded. Jack glanced at her, reading the look in her violet eyes as plainly as if it were words written across the page of a book, then looking at each of his other friends and seeing the look reflected in their eyes, as well. "Oh, don't worry about them," Pitch said, "they're fine, I just tossed them into a closet for now. That snowman was really getting on my nerves." Jack focused his gaze on Elsa intently, but at the same time as discreetly as he could so as not to alert Pitch to what was going on. The Guardian silently willed the Queen to look at him, to meet his eyes, until finally, she did, and then he held her gaze, now impelling her to read the message written in it. Pitch was speaking again, but Jack tuned it out along with everything else and put every last drop of his focus exclusively on Elsa as a look of understanding came over her face. He continued to urge her to hear his thoughts, knowing that if the timing was even slightly off, the whole thing could be ruined.

_One..._

A light flutter of wings.

_Two..._

Six pairs of narrowed eyes.

_Three._

"And now I see—"  
Jack and Elsa both slammed their feet down onto the floor at the same time, cutting Pitch off as ice shot across the floor towards him from two different directions at once while at the same time, Bunny drew his boomerangs, North drew his swords, and along with Tooth and Sandy, both of them charged towards the King of Nightmares. Jack flew over to Elsa and Anna, grabbed the latter's hand, and pulled her up to a higher level of the Workshop. "Stay here," he said, "it's safer." Anna watched as he went to join the fight, seeing that her older sister had run across the room to get a distance between herself and Pitch. She stood there and watched the whole thing, feeling both helpless and frustrated at the same time, wishing there was something she could do to help.

The longer she watched, however, the less she was bothered by the fact that she was powerless to help and the more she became transfixed by the way the Guardians fought. It seemed almost as if they had some sort of telepathic connection to one another that allowed them to move and work in perfect harmony without ever needing to speak a word. Jack would bombard Pitch with blasts of ice and snow from the curved end of his staff while Bunny moved around the room in a blur throwing boomerangs from every imaginable angle, Tooth would use her wings to slice clean through the black sand that was sent out while also splitting herself up into little groups of Mini Fairies, which Baby Tooth would then lead in attacks that involved swarming around Pitch and latching onto him to do damage in whatever way it was they were capable of, and the entire time, North seemed to be having perhaps more fun than he should with swinging his swords at the minions that Pitch was making out of his black sand, as well as at Pitch himself every time the chance to do so presented itself.

And then there was Elsa's involvement.

Every now and then, Anna noticed that Jack would look at Elsa and wave his arm towards Pitch or make some other kind of gesture, and her sister would use her powers to help somehow; another layer of ice on the floor beneath the Boogeyman's feet, a surprise blast of wintery air right in his face, flurries of snow to block his vision, just whatever happened to come out, it seemed, Elsa would use, and she never even left the place she had taken for herself on the edge of the room, which kept her out of harm's way while still enabling her to be of help.

Anna was snapped out of her thoughts by a rattling sound behind her. She turned and gasped when she realized what it was, then looked around for something to help her. Noticing a chisel and mallet from her peripheral vision, she ran and snatched them up, then hurried over to the closet door, placing the chisel against the lock and smashing the end of it with the mallet over and over again as hard as she could until the lock finally gave way and the door burst open, Kristoff tumbling out to land at her feet, followed by Sven and Olaf. By the time all three of them were on their feet and Olaf was back in his proper shape, the fight was dying down, and it wasn't long before Pitch was on the ground sneering. Jack slammed the end of his staff down on th floor in front of himself, sending ice in Pitch's direction and pinning his arms down to trap him in place as the Guardians all gathered around him in a group. They all looked around at each other, then Sandy nodded to Jack.

The Winter Spirit crouched down on one knee, his eyes narrowed. "Alright, Pitch," he said, "what are you planning? Why are you involving that prince, and what do you want with the girls?"  
"Oooh, sounds like someone's been spying," Pitch said. "I never took you for the type. Uh-oh, looks like someone's losing his patience. Tell me, Jack, when the Spirit of Winter loses it, does hell freeze over?"  
"Listen, pal, you _really_ do not wanna piss me off tonight. I have had a hell of a week, and I'm just about ready to jam an icicle through the the skull of the next person that makes me mad, right between the eyes. So unless you want that person to be you, I would suggest you start telling me what I wanna know right now. Got it? And don't think for even a second that I won't actually stab you, because I promise you, I will. And you know who else will probably be happy to get in on the action? My friend Elsa here. She'll freeze anyone who messes with her little sister into a block of solid ice, won't you, princess?"

"With pleasure," Elsa said, appearing over Jack's shoulder to glare down at Pitch with a ball of frozen matter in one hand. "You see this snowball?" she asked. "This isn't a snowball. It's an iceball. If I throw it hard enough, it'll knock you out. I may not know who you are or what you're doing here, but I do know that as of right now, you've got two very angry people with the power to control anything and everything frozen and summon it with a wave of the hand standing over you along with two very legitimate threats hanging over your head, so if I were you, I would do what Jack says and start talking. Right now. Whoever the hell you are."

"She's a feisty one, isn't she?" Pitch said. "Just like you. Have you found yourself a girlfriend, Jack?"  
"You see what's happening with my hand right now? This is an icicle in the making. I will stab you with it, just like I said unless you spill. Now. I'm serious here, Pitch, this isn't a game, so stop laughing."

Pitch smiled as if he knew something that Jack didn't and it pleased him. "Too. Late," he said. Everyone looked up towards the window as sunlight began streaming in through the panes. Jack gasped when he realized what Pitch had meant and looked down again, but instead of the Boogeyman, he found himself looking at the final swirl of black sand as Pitch dissolved in the sunlight, his laughter echoing in their ears. Bunny and Jack both let out shouts of frustration at almost the exact same time, the former hurling a boomerang across the room and the latter pounding his fist against the ground as Elsa sighed heavily and let her iceball drop to the floor, where it crumbled to pieces.

"Who _was_ that?" Anna asked as she, Kristoff, Sven, and Olaf came hurrying down a flight of stairs to join the others. She waved her arms around to keep her balance when she slipped after coming onto the ice a bit too hastily, and Elsa was quick to provide both her sister and Kristoff with blades on the bottom of their shoes to allow them to skate around the room for the time being so they wouldn't end up falling and hurting themselves by slipping again. "That was Pitch Black," Jack said as Kristoff helped Anna across the room while she got a feel for moving around in her skates, Olaf gripping the princess's skirt and getting pulled along while Sven helped by giving her an occasional nudge from behind.

"You've probably heard of him before," Jack continued, "as the Boogeyman. He's also called the King of Nightmares. You've heard of the Dark Ages, right? That was his time. He ruled back then with fear. He wants to get all the kids to stop believing in us, because if they stop believing, they're scared, and if they're scared, he gets more power. He wants to bring in a new Dark Age so he can be in charge again. Last time we fought him, we thought for a while that we'd lost Sandy. All the lights you see right now on the Globe...every single one of them went out. Every single one of these kids stopped believing...except for one. Right in this area here. Jamie Bennett. If his light had gone out with the rest, Pitch would have won and the world would be in darkness and fear right now." He paused thoughtfully for a moment, then let out a half-hearted laugh and ran a hand through his hair. "Geez, I'm not used to being the one to explain these things," he said. "North is usually the one that does this part, but there's not really much of a choice since I'm the only one Kristoff can see or hear. We're gonna work on fixing that, though, I promise."

"I saw that Pitch guy," Kristoff said. "Is that good or bad?"  
"I guess...kind of both. Good, because at least you'll see him coming if he ever tries to do anything to you, but bad because it means there's something—I don't know what that might be—but there's something in this world that you're so scared of that it gives Pitch some power over you. It might not be very much power, but it's still power. Like I said, fear means belief in him, and the more of that there is, the more power he has. Kristoff, this is the Boogeyman we're talking about. This is the thing that you heard stories about growing up, the thing that you were always afraid was hiding in your closet or under your bed when you went to sleep at night. It's the thing you asked your parents to check for when they tucked you in because you were scared that it would come out of the shadows in the middle of the night and eat you or something. The monster in your nightmares, the very cause of those nightmares. He's the reason that good dreams become bad. And Elsa, he's also the reason you have to learn to control your fear as much as you can, because the more terrified you are of your own powers, the more he'll be able to exploit that and use it against you, and that's the last thing that we want."

"Elsa, Anna, it's not safe for either of you to go back to Arendelle," Tooth said. "Pitch has teamed up with that Hans guy, and they'll kill you both if they catch you in the city, in the castle, on the fjords..."  
"What about my ice palace?" Elsa asked. "Jack knows what I'm talking about, he crash-landed onto the balcony last week, that's how we met, and Anna and the others were all there just earlier today before Jack and I came here. It's on the North Mountain, quite a ways from Arendelle even on horseback, I made it by myself with nothing but my powers. It's exactly what it sounds like, a castle made entirely from solid ice, and I've got a bodyguard, a snow golem that I made called Marshmallow."

Jack shook his head and put a hand on her shoulder. "I don't think so, princess," he said. "Even if we destroy that staircase you made, that won't stop Pitch from getting to it, and Hans may be human, but he can still climb the mountain with the right equipment, which might not even be needed since he's got Pitch on his side. No, I think the safest place for you right now—for all of you—is either right here at the North Pole, in Bunny's Warren, or at Tooth's palace. I'd offer up my own place, too, but it's really just a pond in a clearing out in the woods by Burgess. Don't think it'd be too comfortable for you guys. Well, maybe Olaf, and I guess maybe for Sven, but seeing how the rest of you can't exactly survive out in the open..."

"I'm getting the feeling that Arendelle's not safe?" Kristoff asked, though it came out as more of a statement than a question, and Anna nodded in response. "Well, where ever we stay, Sven's gonna need carrots," he said. "He's real picky about that, there have to be carrots available." Sven gave a firm nod as he snorted in agreement with this. North laughed. "He is welcome to stay with the sleigh team," he said. "I will make sure he gets all the carrots he could possibly want!" Sven let out a happy noise, looking very pleased with this idea. He bumped Jack's elbow as if asking him to share it with Kristoff, and Jack laughed as he rubbed the reindeer's snout. "Don't worry about Sven," he said to Kristoff, "North just offered to let him stay with the sleigh team. He'll be taken care of and get plenty of carrots, plus he'll be with eight other reindeer to boot, so you won't have anything to worry about, trust me."

"God, this is so_ frustrating!"_ Kristoff said in exasperation. "You're all talking to invisible people, and it's making me feel like _I'm_ the crazy one! And, okay, I can accept that Elsa's not the only person in the world with magic powers or whatever it is she has, but the flying thing is almost too much! And you, Sven, I expected different from you. 'What's that supposed to mean?' Oh, nothing, nothing, just that I thought we were friends for life, and friends don't try to mess with each other's heads by pretending that there's someone there when there clearly is not!"

"Only because you don't _believe_ hard enough!" Anna said. "You've gotta believe harder, Kristoff, that's the only way you'll be able to see them! Oh, come on, I know you can! You're doing it with Jack right now!"  
"Okay, look, guys, the issue here is that he needs to have some kind of proof," Jack interrupted. "Since we're actually at the North Pole, I'm not sure how much more proof there could possibly be of North, but we'll figure something out. As for everyone else...maybe for Bunny, we could take a little field trip to the Warren to show him the eggs and everything? And for Sandy...Not too sure, actually, but I'll work on it and get back to you. And as for Tooth...Maybe she could have one of her Mini Fairies bring his Memory Box?"

"My what now?" Kristoff asked.  
"Your Memory Box," Jack repeated. "See, the teeth that get collected from underneath kids' pillows hold the most precious memories of a person's childhood. As the Guardian of Memories, it's Tooth's job to watch over those memories, which is why she collects the teeth that hold them. Once they're collected, they're taken back to her Palace, and she puts them in the Memory Box that belongs to the child who lost them. Each person has their own Memory Box, and they can only be opened by the person themself, Tooth, or one of the Mini Fairies, which ensures the safety of the teeth, and consequently, the memories, that are stored inside. When someone forgets something, when they need to remember what's important, the memories are returned to them. I never would have been able to find my center if it wasn't for my own Memory Box, and I have Baby Tooth to thank for showing me how to open it. Maybe if you open yours, we'll get lucky and whatever memory it shows you will help you believe in Tooth enough for you to see her and Baby Tooth. What do you think, Tooth?"

Tooth's eyes lit up and she clasped her hands together. "I think it's definitely worth a try," she said hopefully. She turned her attention on the gaggle of Mini Fairies that were all hovering nearby, still there from the fight with Pitch. "Girls!" she said. "Do me a favor, go on back home and one of you bring me a Memory Box, okay? Kristoff Bjorgman's, to be specific. Don't open it up or anything, just go get it and bring it back here to me, alright? Oh, yes, yes, sweeties, Mommy loves you, too! I'll see you in a little bit, okay? Bye-bye!"

While waiting for one of Baby Tooth's sisters to return with Kristoff's Memory Box, the Guardians explained everything they could about Pitch Black to their mortal guests, including their last encounter with him and how they'd managed to defeat him, Jack acting as a translator of sorts for Kristoff when one of his friends threw something important into the mix.

"So it's _really_ bad news when he shows up, isn't it?" Anna said when they were finished, and Bunny nodded in a way that was uncharacteristically somber for him. There were several beats or so of silence as everyone became absorbed in their own separate thoughts on the matter. That silence was broken, though, when a Mini Fairy came zipping up with a Memory Box tucked under one arm and tapped Tooth on the shoulder. She looked up and smiled. "Oh, thank you!" she said as she took the Box and gave the Fairy a kiss on the top of the head. "Thank you so much, sweetheart, that's all I needed. You can go home with your sisters now, okay? Thank you!"

She turned to Jack with a wide smile on her face and held the Box out to him. "You know how to open these things," she said, "so show Kristoff, and then let's see what happens!" Jack smiled and gave a nod, taking the Box from her and turning to face Kristoff. "This," he said, "is your Memory Box, Kristoff Bjorgman. Here, let me show you how to open it, and after that, it'll be up to you to carry out the actual opening part, okay? Like I said, only Tooth, the Mini Fairies, and the person it belongs to can open one of these things, so all I can do is show you how, then you're on your own." After showing him what to do, Jack handed the Box over to Kristoff, who, for a moment, just held it in his hands and looked at it, turning it around so he could see it from various angles.

"Well," he said finally, "here goes nothing, I guess." And with those words, he did exactly what Jack had shown him to do, and the Box opened, letting out a golden glow that Kristoff squinted against for a moment while his eyes adjusted. Then, after a moment, his eyes widened and he gasped, looking up and turning to Sven in excitement. "Sven! Did—Did you see that?!" he asked. Sven shook his head. "It was _us!"_ Kristoff said. "It was us, but we were—We were so _tiny!_ You didn't even have your antlers yet, not even the little knobby stubs on your head that they start off as! It was the day we first met, remember? I fell through that patch of thin ice, and you jumped in and kept me near the surface long enough for someone to come and pull me out, remember that? You saved my life, Sven! I would have _died_ if you hadn't been there!" Sven let out a noise that was somewhere between a bray and a grunt, then gave Kristoff a big, slobbery reindeer kiss right across the face, but Kristoff didn't seem to care, because he just laughed and hugged his lifelong friend.

"Hoo-_ray_ for friends that make sacrifices for each other!" Tooth cried cheerfully, clapping her hands in childlike delight as Baby Tooth zipped a circle around the crown of her head and let out celebratory little noises of her own.

Kristoff's eyes opened as he gasped, lifting his head from Sven's furry body and looking directly at Tooth, whose hands flew up to her face as she began to emit an odd noise that was probably best described as a strange combination of a drawn out exhalation of breath and an overjoyed squeal. "You. Can. _See me!"_ she gushed, and before anyone could so much as blink, she had all but thrown herself at him. "Woah—! Uh, yeah, I can see you!" he said. "Hi there! Wow, you sure are friendly, aren't you? It's, um...I-It's Tooth, right? Toothy-something?"

"Toothiana! But yes, you can call me Tooth like everybody else! Oh! Do you see anything else? Any_one_ else? Or just me and Jack?"  
"No, I...I see...a big bearded guy, and...a giant rabbit...and a—Are you made of _sand?"_  
Sandy nodded, the smile on his face looking rather pleased to be seen and acknowledged by the blond. Bunny hopped forward and held a paw out to Kristoff.

"E. Aster Bunnymund," he said. "Call me Bunny."  
"The...Easter Bunny, I'm guessing, right?" Kristoff said. Bunny grinned and gave a single nod of confirmation, then moved aside to let North step into his place. "Nicholas St. North," the Russian said, "very nice to finally meet you in person! The yetis, they used to call you Carrot Boy when you were little, you know!"  
"Aww, Kristoff!" Anna said. "Did you always want carrots for Christmas as a kid? How cute!"  
"I did not _always_ want carrots!" Kristoff announced indignantly, frowning at the redhead.  
"This is true," North said, "only after he met Sven did the carrots begin every year."

Elsa lifted a hand, looked at it for a moment, then slowly and cautiously placed it on Anna's shoulder, making the younger girl turn around, pleasantly surprised by her sister's touch. "Anna, if it's not too much trouble, I was thinking...that is...I was wondering if...I mean..." She sighed, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear, then smiling at her little sister. "Would you like to take a walk with me?" she asked. Anna studied her face, hardly daring to believe her own ears, but when she saw only sincerity and—was that hope in her eyes?—she smiled. "Elsa, I...Yes! Yes, absolutely! I—I would love to take a walk with you! Where are we going, exactly?" The young queen shrugged. "Nowhere, really," she said. "Just...around the outside of the building, I guess. That is, of course, if Jack doesn't need any help cleaning up the mess that he and I left in here." Jack grinned and shook his head. "Not at all, princess," he said, and with a wave of his staff, all the ice was gone from the room, along with the skating blades on the bottom of Anna and Kristoff's shoes. "Go on," he said, "spend some time with your sister. You did great earlier, you've earned a reward."

"Thank you, Jack," Elsa said. "For everything."

* * *

He wouldn't admit it out loud, but Jack was actually kind of grateful to be able to have a break from being with Elsa. It wasn't that he was getting bored or anything, because he wasn't, not at all. It was just that he needed some time to think, which was something he was finding increasingly difficult to do in the queen's presence. He was having somewhat of a war with himself right now, because on the one hand, he really had to figure some things out, which he couldn't do unless he was thinking clearly, which was getting harder and harder for him to do with Elsa nearby, but on the other hand, his unfathomable desire to be close to her only seemed to be growing. And then there was that moment they'd had on the mountain earlier.

For three hundred years, Jack had wondered who he was, what his purpose was, why he was there. He'd been alone for so long. He'd had no one to love, and no one to be loved by. Even now, he had trouble remembering what his life had been like before that fateful day on the ice with Clara. His memories were coming back at a pace that, while fairly steady, was also slow enough to really frustrate him sometimes, and other times, he would see or hear something that would throw him unexpectedly into a flashback of something similar from his old life, just like the time that Jamie saying he was scared had triggered a memory of the same words from Clara. The sudden flashbacks, while something he was grateful for, could also be a bit irritating because at times, they would come when he least expected it and do things like throw him off while flying or something else of the sort, which was, of course, a terrible inconvenience.

But one thing he still couldn't recall was if he'd ever experienced the feelings that Elsa stirred inside him.

Now, sitting on the roof of North's Workshop with his staff laying next to him and his knees drawn up to his chest, Jack turned his face towards the heavens. "Listen," he said softly, "I don't know if you're paying attention, or if you even care what I have to say. I don't know if you're the one giving me back my memories, or if it's just extended after-effects of opening my Memory Box, and I know that you have this habit of ignoring everything I say and all the questions I ask, but...just this once...do you think you could help me out here?" He waited, but nothing happened, and the only sound he was met with was the breeze gently whooshing in his ears. He sighed. "Yeah," he said, "I thought as much. Well. Thanks anyway, I guess." He began to reach for his staff, but as soon as his hand came into contact with the wood it was carved out of, he suddenly found himself somewhere completely different.

* * *

_"Hey, wait up!" Jack called. "Clara, don't get too far ahead, stay where I can see you!"_  
_"Wow, she's sure a fast little thing, isn't she?" a voice said laughingly. Jack turned and smiled as he leaned over, reaching his hand out towards the girl behind him. She took the offered hand, and he pulled her up to the top of the slope where he stood. "Hurry up, you guys!" Clara shouted. Jack and his friend looked at each other, then laughed and continued their trek in the younger girl's wake. The girl beside him was his own age, and she had beautiful reddish-blonde hair that fell in waves down her back, and clear blue eyes and a warm smile and a laugh that could bring sun to even the rainiest day. But what was her name? He could feel it there on the edge of his mind, like a scent that he recognized, but couldn't place. It was driving him absolutely mad. _

_"Hey, Jack, can I ask you something?"_  
_"Of course you can. You can ask me anything, 'Kenzie."_

* * *

Just as suddenly as it had begun, the flashback ended. Jack blinked, turning to look up at the moon, which was still lingering in the sky even though the sun had already started to come up on the opposite horizon. "If that was you," he said, "thanks a ton."

He smiled in awe as the memories slowly but surely began coming back to him. "That's right," he muttered, "Makenzie. Makenzie Harrison. She lived right across the street, and...we were playmates when we were little. We grew up together, she was my best friend, she used to help me babysit Clara. I...I loved her! Of course, Clara used to tease me about it all the time, and I would never admit that she was right, and...and I was gonna suck it up and tell her, wasn't I? But I never got the chance. I wonder...I wonder what happened to her. I wonder if she cried over me at all. Wow. She was...something else, wasn't she? The only girl with the guts to climb a tree and not care if she got caught doing it or who caught her, or...She just couldn't have possibly cared any less than she did about behaving the way girls were supposed to back then, could she? She was...the bravest person I ever knew, I think...I _know._ Wow...Elsa's eyes look just like hers, too. What are the chances of that happening? And...Elsa...Holy crap..."

It dawned on him then why he felt the need to be near the Snow Queen. It was the same reason that he was now feeling a sense of grief over a girl he hadn't even remembered the existence of until just a moment ago, and the same reason that Elsa's presence was making it harder and harder for him to think clearly with each moment spent around her.

He had fallen in love with the Queen of Arendelle.

* * *

**WHEEEEE, okay, so some of you might be wondering if I'm going to be bringing this Makenzie girl in as some new Guardian or something to use her as a plot device, but I can safely assure you all right now that any and all appearances she may or may not make in this story are going to be confined exclusively within Jack's memory!**

**...**

**althoughimightuseherasanexcusetowriteasequaleventuallykekekekekekeke! XD  
**

**TILL NEXT TIME!**


	6. Chapter 6

**OKAY! So I'm getting this up the day before my birthday, which this year just happens to also be the day that they let all the Anti-Fairies loose, lol! (today, that is, not my birthday!) Oh, and before I forget—*unfreezes Tora19Kage from block of ice* You're free to go now, Tora! :)  
**

**(She figured out something that was going to happen this chapter, I couldn't let her go loose in case she told anyone. Don't worry, she hasn't been frozen for very long, though!)**

**Anyway, like I was saying, this is kind of where things really start to get going as far as "a'ight bitchez let's get shit done and save the world _again _'cuz we're the Guardians and that's what we do that's how we roll bitch!"**

**Also, I threw a thing in here about Eugene and Rapunzel that includes a headcanon about Rapunzel and the sisters that's becoming very accepted among the fans on Tumblr and explains why Rapunzel and Anna look so much alike!**

**Crap, my computer needs to restart in fourteen minutes, I've gotta wrap this up so it doesn't shut down before I can save my stuff.**

**I OWN NOTHING AND DENY EVERYTHING!**

* * *

Even though she wasn't entirely sure that she should, Elsa decided to go ahead and just tell Anna everything, right from the very beginning, starting with what had happened when they were children. She felt as if her sister deserved to know the truth after what she'd been put through recently because of the secret. Anna was, quite naturally, mad at Elsa for hiding everything from her for so long, but then the anger transitioned into guilt over what had happened, followed by relief and gratitude that her sister was safe and hadn't been hurt, or worse.

"Oh, _you're_ glad that _I'm_ okay?" Elsa said when the relief kicked in. "Anna, I'm not the one who almost turned to solid ice! Do you have any idea what it would have done to me if I had lost you? How much it would kill me to know that I was the reason you were gone? You have always been my everything, Anna, I wouldn't be able to go on if anything ever happened to you! I'd rather Hans just outright kill me than lose you, you are the most precious thing in the world to me! That's why I ran off to the North Mountain in the first place! Everything I've ever done has been to protect you, it's all because I love you and want you to be safe and want what's best for you. Don't you understand that? Kristoff saved your life, and that is something that I will_ never_ be able to repay him for, I am in his debt for what he did! I love you, Anna, is that really so difficult to understand?!"

"I love you too, you idiot!" Anna cried tearfully, throwing herself at her sister and hugging her tightly. "What about Kristoff?" Elsa asked after a few moments. Anna pulled back to look at her in confusion. "What about him?" she asked. Elsa smiled as she wiped a few tears from Anna's cheek with her thumb. "Do you love him?"

Anna blinked. "Elsa, wha—"  
"You said that Pabbie said that only an act of true love could thaw your heart, and that Kristoff was the one who saved you, so he obviously loves you...Do you love him?"

"Y-Yes, I...I do, I love him. Why?"  
Elsa took both her sister's hands between her own and looked the younger girl directly in the eyes. "Anna," she said, "if he ever proposes, don't bother asking for my blessing. You already have it." Anna stared at Elsa as her words sank in. "R-Really?" she managed finally, and Elsa nodded. "He saved the life of the person who matters more than anything in the world to me," she said. "Like I said, I can never repay him for that, but this? This is the least I can do as thanks."

"Elsa, I...I don't know what to say, I mean...Thank you. Thank you so much. Can I ask you something, though?"  
"Of course, Anna. Anything. From now on, no more secrets between us. Anything you want to know, I'll be totally honest, I promise."

"Do you love Jack?"  
"I—Wait, what?"

"Not what, who! Jack! You know, the one with the silver hair, carries a staff around and flies? Do you love him? You promised to tell the truth, no take-backs!"  
"No, no, I would never go back on a promise to you, never! I just...I wasn't expecting that to be your question, it just took me by surprise. You caught me off guard, that's all. Um...so...do I love Jack? Jack—Jack Frost? Um, well, i-it's hard to say, I mean...I don't really know him, I just met him last week, so I...I haven't exactly had the chance to get to know him or anything, you know? I mean, that's not to say that I don't like him or anything, I do, he's very sweet, and he's been very kind to me ever since he crash-landed onto my balcony, he's very sweet,_ very_ sweet! It's just—"

She sighed.

"Anna," she said, "you don't just think that because he shares my...ability, do you?" she asked.  
"Oh, please, Elsa, really? I know you better than that. You may have isolated yourself for the past sixteen years, but you're still my sister, and I know you better than you think I do. And despite what you said at your coronation, I do, in fact, know a thing or two about love. Besides, Kristoff was raised by those trolls, and_ they_ happen to be love experts, I'll have you know. Seriously, though, Elsa, I'm not stupid, and I saw how you were looking at him earlier! And another thing? That 'for everything' you put in there when you thanked him? There's absolutely no way that could have just been some general, meaningless thing! You were talking about something specific that happened between you two, I know it! You don't have to tell me what it is if you don't want to, but like I said, I'm not stupid, Elsa, I see probably a lot more than you realize, I pick up on lots of things that you may not even realize are there to be picked up on!"

"I don't know! Okay, I don't know. I...You said it best yourself. All I know is how to—"  
"Oh, you know I didn't mean that, we were both mad and upset, let's just pretend we never said any of that stuff and move on with it! And...it's okay if you don't know. You know, I think Olaf has the right idea about love. He told me that love is putting another person's needs before your own. Like...Like how Jack wants to help you with your powers so Pitch won't be able to get to you. Or how it was more important to him that you were comfortable with touching him before you guys did any training." Anna gasped suddenly and threw Elsa a little off-balance when she latched unexpectedly onto the older girl's arm. "Elsa!" she cried. _"Jack_ loves_ you!_ He's putting you before himself, just like Olaf said, that means he must love you! I mean, maybe he doesn't realize that he does, but he does, I know he does, and I bet if we asked Olaf what he thinks, he'd say the same thing!"

_"Olaf,"_ Elsa said, reclaiming her arm, "is a snowman. He's been alive for what? Two weeks? No offense to him, but he's not exactly an expert like the trolls."  
"He knew more about it than I did when I was close to dying after Hans left me alone. He's the one that said that it's putting others before yourself, remember? I told you that already, I know I did. Oh, okay, tell me this! Tooth says that Baby Tooth says that she saw you two kiss on the mountain earlier, is that true, or is Baby Tooth being silly?"

Elsa halted in her tracks, eyes growing to saucers. "Wait a minute, you mean Baby Tooth was _spying_ on us?!" she cried in a mixture of shock and alarm. Anna's grin was so big that Elsa thought her face might crack. "So it is true!" she said excitedly. She looked like a giddy child on Christmas morning, bouncing on the balls of her feet and partly bent over with her hands balled up in front of herself and biting her lower lip. "You _do_ love him!" she exclaimed. "You love him _and_ you've already kissed him, that is so—"

"Woah, hold on a second there, I did not kiss him! And he didn't kiss me, either, not the way you're thinking of. It was on the cheek!"  
"But you still kissed each other, so ha ha, I win!"

"Anna, it doesn't prove anything! Friends kiss each other on the cheek too, you know, it doesn't have to be romantic every time a boy kisses a girl or vice versa, there don't always have to be feelings involved, you know that! Two people of the opposite gender can kiss each other on the cheek or the forehead or the top of the head, and it doesn't necessarily have to mean anything to either or both! Jack is my friend, Anna, okay? Stop turning everything into something it's not! Look, you've spent your life behind the gates, so you don't have much experience with a lot of things, and I don't, either, I spent my life behind the gates and in my room to boot. We've both got a lot to learn about the world, and—"

Anna got into her sister's path, putting both hands on her shoulders and digging the heels of her boots as deep into the snow as she could get them to go. "Elsa, listen to me," she said firmly, crossing her arms. "Love is about sacrifice, and you are the most sacrificial person I know. You sacrificed your relationship with me for my safety _because you love me._ You sacrificed everything you had ever known when your powers came out because you thought it was best for me and the people in the kingdom _because you love us._ When I told you that you had frozen Arendelle, you panicked_ because you love it._ And when you were helping them fight Pitch? It was amazing, the way he didn't even need to say anything for you to understand him! You guys were practically telepathic with each other! You know who's like that? Twins. You know who else is like that? People in love, that's who. Now tell me something. What did it feel like when he kissed you?"

"It was...like...like when you rub your stocking feet across a rug and then touch a metal door handle and it shocks you, only it wasn't a painful shock like the kind you get from door handles, it was...it was actually...a pleasant feeling. In fact, now that I think about it, it...it was the closest thing to warmth that I've ever felt from another person in...a long time. And it wasn't the same kind of warmth that I felt when you and I were little and we used to hug. When we hugged, it...it was actually a little uncomfortable for me, to tell the truth, just because, you know, I've got such a low body temperature compared to you and everyone else, and so hugging you, the heat from it, it was always...a little like staying in front of a fire for too long probably feels to you and Kristoff. But the warmth I felt with Jack...It wasn't like that...It was more...more like I always imagined that it feels like for you to get under the covers during winter. A...safe kind of warm, I guess would be the best way to put it."

"When Kristoff kissed me to save me, you know what it felt like? What you just described, only in bigger amounts. Know why? Because I love him. That's what it's supposed to feel like. So as far as I'm concerned, you pretty much just admitted that you're in love with Jack, even if you don't realize that you are. Trust me on this, Elsa. I know that I'm in love with Kristoff, so between the two of us, that makes me the love expert, don't you think? You know what? I wanna see something."

Elsa watched in confusion as Anna reached out to put a hand just above her sister's heart. She stood straighter, and took in a deep breath, puffing out her chest and cheeks as if she were about to start yodeling at the top of her lungs or something, but when she opened her mouth, all that came out was Jack's name, slurred together a bit so that it came out almost as if it were one word—"Jackfrost!" Almost immediately after saying it, she beamed as if pleased with herself. "Jaaaaack _Frost!"_ she said, then the hand that wasn't on Elsa's chest flew up over her mouth to stifle a giggle, only to come back down right after. "Jackfrost, Jackfrost, Jackfro—"

"Anna, what exactly is this accomplishing?" Elsa asked finally. Anna grabbed the older girl's hand and replaced her own with it on Elsa's chest. "Jack Frost," she said. Then, after a moment, "You feel that? The way your heart sped up for just a second when I said his name? Here, I'll do it again, pay close attention this time. Jack Frost."

She felt it that time. It was very brief, only a second or two, like Anna had said, but there was no denying it. "Okay," she said, "now let me try something." She paused for just a moment, going back over what Jack had said to her the day they met when she had accused him, however indirectly it may have been, of not being who he said he was. "Jackson Overland Frost," she said, and then gasped slightly when she felt her heart not only speed up for an instant or so, but also, unless she was mistaken, skip a beat, maybe even two. "What?" Anna asked. "What, _what?_ Oh, for the love of—Move your hand out of the way, it's my turn again! Jackson Overland Frost!..._Oh my God!_ Elsa, your heart is skipping! That's it, there's no more denying it, you are in love with Jack Frost, and if you try to give me one more excuse or argument or anything else, I swear to God, I will slap you silly until both cheeks are so red and raw that you won't even be able to feel your own face anymore! Just admit already, Elsa! You are in love with Jack!"

Elsa stood there dumb and in shock for several long moments. Just as Anna was beginning to think that she had somehow broken her older sister or caused some sort of malfunction in her brain, Elsa's hands flew up to her head, fingers clutching at her hair. "Oh my God!" she cried. "You're right! I am, aren't I?! Oh, holy crap! Anna, I—I can't be in_ love!"_

"What?! Why not?!"  
"Because, I—I just can't!"  
"Elsa, of course you can! You—"  
"No, Anna, you don't understand, bad things happen to the people I love! I always end up hurting them, I hurt you _twice!_ I froze the entire kingdom solid and have no idea how to thaw it out! Our subjects are all freezing their asses off right now, our _cousin_ and her_ husband_ are freezing their asses off, and to make it worse, Hans is still there doing God-only-knows-what, and let's not forget about the monster he's—"

"Alright, that's it! _Calm. Your. Tits_. I'm sure that Eugene and Rapunzel and everyone else are doing just fine. Don't worry about that right now, we will figure out what needs to be done, and then whatever it is, we will do it, and Arendelle will unfreeze, Eugene and Rapunzel will go back to Corona, everyone will be fine, we'll fight Pitch and Hans, and then everything will be absolutely fine, I promise. Right now, all you need to be worried about is telling him."

Elsa shook her head, taking a step back. "I can't," she said. Anna frowned. "Why n—"  
"I just can't, Anna! I...I mean...what if he doesn't feel the same, what if...what if he laughs, or worse, what if he's already got someone else?"  
"Elsa, who could he possibly have? He's a Guardian, he can't be seen by anyone who doesn't believe in him, and he was how old when he died? Sixteen, seventeen, eighteen? It's not like a lot of girls in that age range believe in this group! I can think of three total. You, me, and probably Rapunzel, who, need I remind you, has been happily married for three years now. So unless he's got a thing with Tooth that hasn't been brought up yet, which I highly doubt he does, you don't exactly have a lot of competition lined up for this guy."

There was a pause.

"You're still hesitant, aren't you? You are, I can see it in your eyes." Anna took in a deep breath and let it out. "Okay," she said, "talk to me. Tell me what exactly it is you're scared of. And this time, tell me the truth. Because I know that none of that other stuff was it. I'm always going to be here for you from now on, Elsa. We're sisters. Sisters help each other with this sort of thing. So tell me what you're thinking here."

"...If it turns out that he does feel the same," Elsa said finally, "then I just...I don't...want...for his heart to get broken. Because it will. Maybe not until years and years from now, but it will eventually get broken if he and I start something together. It's inevitable. He's immortal, and I'm...not. There will eventually come a day when I'll die, if not from age then from illness or something else, and while I'm getting all wrinkly and old and going to my grave, he'll stay young and beautiful and just keep on living, only it'll be without me, and...Imagine if something were to happen to Kristoff. It would kill you, right? Imagine if you had to live with that forever. Because that's what it would be like for Jack if we started something, assuming he does feel the same. And I don't wanna do that to him, regardless of how he does or doesn't feel. So I can't tell him. Oh, don't look at me like that, you asked for the truth and I gave it to you, so don't act so stricken!"

"Then what if I tell him for you?"  
"If you do, I'll tell Kristoff about that one Christmas where you ate so many of those fudge squares that you—"

"You wouldn't dare!"  
"Just try me, Anna."

For a moment, they just stood there facing each other, both obviously refusing to back down.

"Okay," Anna said finally, "fine. So what now? We've reached an impasse, it looks like. You're not going to tell him, but I'm not going to leave you alone about it until you do, so obviously, we'll have to reach some sort of compromise here. So here's what I suggest we do. I say that we sort of just wait it out and see if he returns it or not. Watch for little hints, things like that, and if he hasn't outright said to your face that yes, he feels the same or kissed you on the lips or something by the time it's been two weeks to the day that you guys met and we've both seen enough little things to have us mutually convinced that he does, then you tell him. Or, we could always just get Kristoff to talk to him for us, which might actually be easier, because you know, being a guy and all, he'd have a better understanding of the way Jack's brain works when it comes to this sort of thing than you and I could ever hope to. I dunno, whatever works for you, I guess, since it's your love life on the line. Oh! Uh...I mean..."

Elsa shook her head dismissively. "It's fine," she said, "I know what you meant. Look, I really don't care what you do, just as long as you don't tell him, and that includes getting Kristoff to tell him, and don't you dare breathe a word of this to Olaf, because he means well, but he can't keep a secret to save his own life, and we both know it."

"Elsa? Where are you going?"  
"Just...around. Please don't follow me, Anna, I...I need to be alone for a while so I can think."  
"Okay. But before you go..." She trailed off, and Elsa turned expectantly, only for Anna to throw her arms around her neck. "Thank you," she said. "For this, I mean. For finally deciding that it's okay for me to know and for you to let me in. You have no idea how much it means to me that you've finally opened up after all these years. We're gonna be best buddies again now, right?"

Elsa smiled. "We never stopped," she said. Then she kissed her sister on the forehead as she gently ran a hand over her hair, then turned and walked off, lifting one arm slightly to release little flurries of snowflakes from her palm as she went.

* * *

"Do it!"  
"Make me!"  
"Dammit, Frost, why are you so _stubborn?!"_  
"I'm eternally stuck at seventeen, Tooth, why do you think?!" Jack demanded sarcastically. He turned and was walking away when suddenly, Tooth was right in front of him, her face mere inches away from his and not looking very happy. Her arms were crossed, but she quickly uncrossed them to grab him by the front of his hoodie.

"Jackson Overland Frost, I swear to the Sisters of Flight that if you do not figure out where she is right this very instant and then get your ass there with her and tell her word-for-word what you just told us, I will do absolutely everything in my power to make your life a living hell! I will send hoards of the girls to that pond of yours in Burgess and have them peck you all over while you're asleep in your tree branches, I'll get Bunny to send Warrior Eggs after you, which you know that he'll be all too glad to comply with, I'll convince Sandy to make a whip and smack your scrawny little ass with it over and over again as many times as it takes, and you don't even wanna _know_ what I'll let Baby Tooth do, trust me! She's not as sweet as you think she is, she might just very well be the feistiest out of all my girls, and she is absolutely fearless, she'll do just about anything if you let her, and believe you me, Frost, I will_ totally_ let her. She deserves to know, Jack, and you_ both_ deserve not to be so damn alone anymore and to always have someone around who is going to understand what you're going through in the present and what you've been through in the past and what you will go through in the future, so do it,_ or else,_ do. You. Under. Stand. My. Words?"

For a moment or two, Jack only stared at her incredulously, then took hold of her wrists and pried her hands off of himself before side-stepping her. "You're crazy, you know that?" he said over his shoulder. "Crazy," Bunny said from where he was leaning against the wall with his arms and ankles crossed, "but right. She's got a valid point, mate. You've spent the last three hundred years whining and complaining about how nobody can see you and you're so alone and blah blah blah—Well! Now, you're not. You've found someone who's been just as alone and with the same crap comin' out of her hands, too. Go to her. Say as much. Make it a point to kiss her if you have to, whatever it takes. Besides, don't think you two weren't being obvious earlier!"

"Obvious?" Jack asked. "About what?"  
"The looks!" Bunny said. "You two were practically undressing each other and getting it on right then and there with your eyes, don't think it wasn't noticeable, because believe me, Popsicle, it was! I'm a rabbit, mate, I should know about that sort of crap!"

"You _all_ have wrong idea!" North bellowed. Bunny scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Oh, please," he muttered, "as if you would know about love, old man. Mrs. Claus is a myth and we all kn—Ow!" He rubbed the spot on the back of his head where North had whacked him. "Quiet, rabbit," he said, "you have had your turn, I am talking now. Jack, here is what you do. You go and you tell this girl, _Ya chuvstvuyu sebya khorosho , kogda ya ryadom s vami, ya ne khochu zhit' bez tebya, ya vsegda budu zdes' , kogda vy nuzhdayetes' vo mne, ya—"_

"I don't speak Russian, North," Jack interrupted, his tone matter-of-fact. "It means that you want to be with her always!" North said. "That you want her to come to you when she needs someone to be there, that you feel happy inside when she is near! It means everything you just told us! And just for record, there was _almost_ Mrs. Claus," he added, shooting a meaningful glance in Bunny's direction. "Really?" Jack said. "What happened to her?"

"It was in London," North said, "I was bandit and she was constable's daughter."  
Jack mock-winced in sympathy. "Ouch," he said. "That had to be rough. Sorry, buddy."  
"It was long time ago, Jack, and I don't dwell on it anymore. She married good man and died happy, that is all that matters."

"Guys, _focus!"_ Tooth said. "We have got two—No, make that_ three_ serious issues right now! Arendelle is still frozen, Pitch is back and he's recruited help this time, and, to top it all off, the Guardian of Fun isn't having fun because he's all hung up over the Queen of Arendelle, who is perfect for him in every imaginable way, but he is too damn worried about absolutely nothing to man the you-know-what up and tell her as much! _We need a plan of action here!"_

"Alright, fine!" Jack said, throwing his arms out. "If it really matters that damn much to you guys, I'll tell her, okay?! As soon as I get the chance, when it's just her and me, I'll tell her! For now, let's just focus on the Pitch thing, that's a lot more important than my love life or lack thereof! Tooth's right, we need a plan. Okay, so he's got this prince with him, and this guy wants Elsa and Anna both dead so he can take over their kingdom. Pitch is probably using that to his advantage somehow, and I say that because Anna told us when we were on the fjord that this guy's got twelve brothers, all older, and that puts him thirteenth in line for the throne in his own kingdom. So, from there, let's just assume that he's got some fear or something that's somehow connected to that, and that fear is—"

"Is what Pitch is using to his advantage because that's what he does best!" Tooth finished.  
"But that doesn't explain _why_ Pitch has recruited this guy, or what he's planning to do with him once he's got no more use for him," Bunny said.  
"Well, I don't know about the second one, but the first one...Guys, isn't it obvious?" Jack asked. He got only silence and blank looks in response. "It's because he knows that we've got the girls," he said. "He knows that if he can just manage to get them back to Arendelle, then we'll all go rushing over there to get them back to safety, and as soon as we do, he'll have us right where he wants us so he can do whatever it is he's got planned this time around. He probably figures that Hans is the key to setting a trap for the girls, who, in turn, are the key to setting a trap for us. So, if you ask me, what we need to do is figure out a way to turn the tables by setting a trap for_ him,_ or better yet, both of them, and we need to do it in a way that doesn't put either of the girls in danger. You guys all follow me so far? So here's what I'm thinking. We talk to Elsa and Anna since this is all pretty much centered around them, see what they think and if they've got any ideas, and then we go from there. Sound good?"

"You don't have to talk to them, they're right here."  
Everybody turned to see that the sisters were, indeed, standing in the doorway. "Sorry," Elsa said, "Anna heard our names as we were walking past and she couldn't resist even though I tried to stop her. You're right about two things, Jack, we need to set a trap and Anna needs to be kept safe at all costs. I, on the other hand, can be used as bait if necessary, and am completely willing to act as such. It's not as if I'll be very wanted by the people of Arendelle, not after what I've done and what's happened because of me. They think I'm a monster, remember? So it won't matter if something happens to me. But Anna needs to be able to go back when everything is said and done so that she can take my place as queen once she comes of age three more years from now, and until then, someone will rule for her as the regent."

Jack's face fell into a frown that bordered slightly on a scowl and he threw his staff down onto the floor. "No," he said firmly when all eyes went to him as the staff clattered against the ground. "You're _not_ a monster, Elsa, and if they can't see that, then they don't deserve to have you as their queen. It _does_ matter if something happens to you, it matters to us, and it matters to your sister, so don't you dare try to tell me that you aren't wanted, because I promise you, you are. Nobody is being used as bait, and that's final. I have an idea, but unless everyone—and I mean _everyone,_ even Sven—is in on it and involved and doing absolutely everything they can to help and playing their full part, this plan will not work, and Pitch could end up ruining all our lives and Hans could take Arendelle. Anna, go get Kristoff and the others, bring them up here. These guys are not going to get away with any of this. We're not going to let them. So let's get busy, because we've got ourselves a couple of dickheads to put in place."

* * *

**CRAP IT'S ABOUT TO RESTART I JUST WANNA SAY THAT THIS PROBABLY ISN'T GOING TO BE AS LONG AS I ORIGINALLY THOUGHT IT WOULD WITH THE PACE IT'S MOVING IT'S SURPRISING ME THAT IT'S GOING THIS FAST OKAYGOTTAGOBYE!  
**


	7. Chapter 7

**Well, this chapter sure didn't take as long as I thought it would! Probably because I'm not exactly what you'd call an expert at writing big fights and battle scenes and stuff, I really need to work on that, otherwise I'll be in some serious trouble when I finally manage to actually get going on the book I'm trying to write, LOL!**

**This also is also not as _long _as I had imagined it would be, and I'm not sure if that's because of my inability to write battles or the fact that I'm bursting to get this posted so that I can get the next one up ASAP, because the Big Secret Event I have planned for this is the next chapter, and I've been DYING to be able to put it up! I've had it written for days now, maybe even a couple weeks, I lost track, I have to upload it and then go and edit and stuff! In fact, the last three paragraphs of this chapter along with the last thing said in it were originally part of that scene when I wrote it, and I debated just copy/pasting the whole thing I'd written, Event and all, into the document with the rest of the story and posting it all as one big chapter, but then my brain was like "NO WAIT IT WOULD BE EVEN BETTER IF WE DID A CLIFFHANGER, THE KIND THAT WE DON'T DO VERY OFTEN THAT'S SUSEPENSEFUL-AS-ALL-HELL, LIKE THE KIND THAT MARY DOWNING HAHN DOES IN HER BOOKS, LIKE THE ONE IN ALL THE LOVELY BAD ONES TOWARDS THE END WITH THE TREE AND STUFF"  
**

**So I'm sorry, I'm not usually very big on doing cliffies because as an avid fic reader myself, I know what that's like to have to be put through by a writer, and when I DO put them in my stories, I try to avoid doing it with stuff like I've done here because I know that's the worst kind, but after some thought, I realized my brain was right, because doing it would help keep you guys engaged in the story, and if there's one thing that I love as a reader more than anything, it's finding a book/fic that's REALLY engaging, especially to the point where I go back and re-read it over and over again like I'm doing with this one fantastic historical fiction book right now, it's like the third time I've read it and it's every bit as absorbing as the first time.**

**So I'm really, REALLY sorry about doing this, but since the next one is already written, don't worry, it's gonna be up today, and then I can finally stop worrying about possibly exploding from the anticipation and excitement of getting this Big Event out there!**

* * *

Once they had everything sorted out, it didn't take long for the group to put their plan into action. It started with Sven.

North used one of his snowglobes to take the reindeer back to the forest on the opposite side of Arendelle's fjord and tied a note written in Elsa's hand to one of his antlers, gave him a carrot, then stood on the hill and watched as he took off across the fjord at top speed, staying until he was no more than a dot, then nodded to the Mini Fairy who had come along. She then turned and flew off, heading for the North Mountain where she met up with a group of her sisters, Kristoff, Olaf, Elsa, Anna, and the other Guardians at the ice palace, where Marshmallow was crouched down in his spot by the staircase leading up to the doors with his head raised to watch all the goings-on.

Meanwhile, Sven ran into Arendelle and found a servant, then began stamping and snorting and braying until the startled woman noticed the paper tied to his antlers. She took it and hurried into the castle with it, and as soon as the door closed behind her, Sven turned and took off back across the fjord. He met back up with North, who pulled out the other snowglobe he'd brought along, using it to get to the ice palace and meet up with everyone else.

After that, there was nothing to do but wait.

So that's what they did.

They sat down in the snow and on the steps, with everyone except Jack and Elsa huddling up and rubbing their hands together for warmth, and they waited in silence. For what, they weren't sure yet. A sign. A sign that they were coming, a sign that they weren't alone on the mountain. Just...a sign. A swirl of black sand, the sound of footsteps coming up the staircase that Elsa had constructed leading up to where she'd built her castle, hoofbeats down below, a feeling of unease that couldn't be explained, a voice from the stairs, laughter coming from nowhere, anything.

"God, this is _killing _me," Elsa said finally, and everybody's head turned in her direction. "This is...I just can't stand not knowing when they'll be here, or if they'll even come at all, it's driving me absolutely crazy!"  
"They're coming," Tooth said, "trust me on that. Baby Tooth just saw Hans coming up the mountain on horseback, which means that Pitch can't be too far off, either. He's almost to the gorge. The one that Anna and Kristoff called the Wolf Gorge earlier."

Jack stood up from his spot on the bottom step. "I say we go and meet them halfway," he announced. "Any objections?" Everybody looked around at each other, then Kristoff stood. "This is your plan we're carrying out, Jack," he said, "so I think it's only right that you get to be our leader for now."  
"I second that," Anna said, and one by one, everyone stood up and gave their agreement.

"North, you got anymore globes on you?" Jack asked. North grinned and reached into one of his deep pockets. "I _always _have snowglobes!" he said, holding one up as proof. Jack gave a single nod. "Throw it," he said, "let's go to the Wolf Gorge."

So for the third time that day, North smashed a snowglobe, throwing it down at the top of the stairs, and with Jack in the lead, everybody went through the portal, coming out in front of the gorge where Kristoff's sled had fallen in and gotten destroyed after the close call he, Anna, and Sven had experienced with the wolf pack that had chased them, which was exactly what had prompted Kristoff and Anna to nickname it the Wolf Gorge. When they got there, Kristoff couldn't resist going just close enough to the edge that he could peer down without being in danger of falling in, wanting to see if he could find the remains of his sled, but evidently, the wreckage had since been covered by snowfall, because there wasn't a trace of it that he could see. When Anna came up beside him, he looked at her sideways. "Yyyyeah," he said, "you _so _owe me a new one as soon as we get done with this adventure through insanity."

They looked up, then backed away from the opening to stand with the rest of the group when they heard a horse's whinny from the other side. Moments later, Hans and Pitch came out of the trees and stood on the opposite side. When he noticed Anna standing between Elsa and Kristoff, something flashed briefly in Hans's eyes, but it was gone too quickly for the eighteen-year-old to identify it. Jack narrowed his eyes and stepped forward, planting the end of his staff firmly in the snow.

"Give it up, Pitch!" he called across the distance between them. "Whatever you're planning, you can't win and we all know it! You failed last time, you'll fail this time, and you'll fail every other time you're stupid enough to try and pull this kinda crap! What do you want with that guy, anyway, huh? What're you gonna do with him once he's useless to you? Hey, Hans, can you see me? Oh, look at that, you can! Hi, name's Jack Frost, I'm a friend of Elsa and Anna's! I see you've already met Pitch Black. He tell you what he is? That's the _Boogeyman, _Hans. The King of Nightmares. Whatever it is he's promised you in return for your help, I can tell you right now that you're not gonna get it, he's been lying to you this entire time! That's what he does, Hans! He lies and he cheats and he uses people and exploits their deepest fears to manipulate them into getting what he wants out of them, and then once he's gotten it, he tosses them aside as if they're nothing, which is exactly what they are to him! I don't know what he has planned for you once he's worn out your use, but I can guarantee that it won't be pretty, so if I were you, I'd just back out of whatever deal you've got and walk away while you still can. Leave the girls and their kingdom alone, go back home, work out your family issues, find a girl, fall in love, get married, live happily ever after, and forget any of this ever happened, you understand what I'm saying?"

"You're awfully bold today, Jack!" Pitch responded. "I had expected to see the old man up front since that's usually the case, but obviously, I was wrong. Oh...Oh! I see! You concocted some plan, so they put you in charge, didn't they? Ha! That's classic! Listen, Jack, just hand over those girls and nobody gets hurt."

"If you think I believe that for even a second, you're crazier than I thought!" Jack shouted. "If you wanna get to these two, you're gonna have to go through every single one of us! You will get them over our dead bodies, but that'll be awful hard in my cases seeing how I'm technically already dead, and guess what? You can't kill what's already dead, so good luck with that, pal!"

"Oh, Jack, and here I was thinking you only focused on the kids!"  
_"Believers, _Pitch, we protect _Believers. _Most of them happen to be kids, yes, but every now and then, you'll find a teenager or even an adult, and Elsa and Anna both happen to fall into that category, so we'll protect them both just like we protected the kids last time. So good luck getting across that gorge, because again—You will get these girls _over our dead bodies."_

Pitch smiled maliciously. "It will be my pleasure," he said.

As if it was planned and that was some sort of cue, Hans turned his horse around and went back into the trees. As Pitch was crossing the gorge on a cloud of black sand, Hans suddenly came charging full-speed out of the forest, and his horse leapt across, sending snow up as it skidded to a stop after coming back down to the ground. Hans looked directly at Anna, and the look in her eyes said it all; he was nothing to her, and there would be no wedding in the near future for either of them, if ever, least of all to each other. If he wanted Arendelle even half as badly as he claimed, he really would have to kill her along with he sister, or at the very least allow Pitch to do so for him. Pitch, who had taken his time in crossing the gorge, as if he were savoring the tension in the air over the battle that they all knew by then was going to happen in just a matter of mere moments, drinking it in and enjoying it while it lasted, almost like he did with fear.

For another few moments, there was silence. Everyone stood their ground facing those on the opposing side, each in some battle-ready position; Hans on his horse, leaning forward with one hand on the hilt of his sword; Jack with one leg bent at the knee slightly and his foot planted flat in the snow, the other leg straight out behind with only the ball of that foot on the ground, his staff gripped tightly in both hands with the curved end tilted towards Pitch and his eyes narrowed; Bunny and North, each with their respective weapons drawn, and Bunny with his ears and whiskers twitching in anticipation of the coming fight; Tooth with her wings going top-speed and a hoard of Mini Fairies hovering in the air around her with Baby Tooth in the front, just above Tooth's head; Sandy, standing on his cloud of Dreamsand with whips at the ready in both hands; Elsa, both elbows next to her waist where they were bent slightly, her fingers curled in preparation to release her powers full-force; Kristoff, armed with a sword that North had loaned to him since he himself didn't really use it anymore; Anna, who carried a sword borrowed from Tooth; and even Olaf, who was riding on Sven's back with the reindeer ready to use his antlers as a weapon. Pitch was the only one who kept his usual stance—tall and straight without the slightest indication that he was about to make a move or was ready to defend himself against one. He only smiled that chilling smile of his as he stared Jack directly in the eyes from across the distance between them.

Then, still gripping it with both hands, Jack slowly raised his staff above his head, then slammed the end of it down, sending ice forward that Hans's horse began to lose its footing on, which then triggered a chain reaction of responses; Hans drew his sword as the horse reared up and whinnied, raising it above his head and charging forward. He was met by Olaf riding Sven, the latter of whom butted heads with the horse while the former urged him on and gave him encouragement. Pitch sent forth a group of his Nightmares, which sent Tooth and Sandy into a frenzy of blurred wings and whips slicing into the black sand while Baby Tooth and her sisters split up into two separate groups, one of which followed Tooth around in a swarm, the second going to help Sven and Olaf by doing whatever they could to try and distract the horse, which Hans had jumped down from by then and proceeded to engage in a swordfight with Kristoff. North was trying to stay near Anna as much as he could so she would be able to do as little as possible with her sword since she had never used one before in her life, and Bunny was all over the place with his boomerangs, shouting insults and profanities at the Nightmares and Fearlings and letting out the occasional battle cry, clearly enjoying himself immensely and getting a huge kick out of it all. Jack and Elsa were working together, combining their powers at every chance that presented itself, doing their best to stay back-to-back when they could manage, and taking turns using icicles to intercept the arrows that Pitch fired from his bow before they could reach any of the others in the group.

It went on in this same general manner for some time until finally, Hans feinted as Kristoff took a jab at him, then swung his sword, and before Kristoff had time to register anything besides the sound of the blade slicing through the air, pain shot up through his leg starting from somewhere between his knee and his calf. He cried out, dropping his weapon as both hands moved instinctively towards the source of the pain to clutch at the wound and he collapsed to the ground. Anna's head turned reflexively towards the sound, and when she saw Kristoff lying in the snow clutching at his wounded leg with Hans standing over him, sword in hand and ready to strike, all rational thought flew out the window for her as she called out his name and charged unthinkingly towards the two men. She managed to put a fairly sizable gash in one of Hans's shoulders, and when the prince dropped his sword and cried out, he had vanished in a cloud of black sand before his blade had even hit the ground. Jack saw the whole thing and thought that with Hans gone, they would get lucky since it was now ten against one with the scales tipped in their favor, and the thought put a bit more spark into his eyes as he began to fight with a more renewed energy and determination.

That was when the unthinkable happened.

Pitch grabbed Anna by the back of her collar and held her over the chasm when Elsa started towards them, making the older of the two sisters halt in her tracks, eyes widening as she gasped. "One more step," Pitch said, "and the last thing she'll ever see is the icy ground at the bottom of this hole. That goes for all of you. Nobody move, or she dies."

There were several beats of absolute silence as eyes flickered back and forth among one another and minds raced, each of them willing the rest to know what they were thinking so a plan could be made to get Anna out of harm's way. The only audible sound was the hollow noise made by the wind blowing through the gorge over which Anna dangled helplessly in Pitch's grasp, though the redhead was certain that her pounding heart could be heard a mile away, it was so loud in her own ears. The Boogeyman chuckled unexpectedly, and all eyes returned to him. "That's what I thought," he said. "But, oh dear, it seems my fingers are slipping...Oopsies."

He let go, then vanished in a cloud of black sand as the sun brok over the horizon, laughing the entire time, and Anna screamed as she began to fall. "Anna!" her sister cried. "No!" Without thinking about it, Elsa lifted her skirt and ran forward, throwing herself from the edge of the cliff, not realizing in her desperation to save her little sister that in almost the exact same instant that Anna had begun to fall, Toothiana had shot forward like an arrow from a bow, fists clenched at her sides and determination written all over her face, diving down and catching Anna, then carrying her back up to safety, unaware of what Elsa had done until it was too late.

_"ELSA, NO!"_

* * *

**LOL YOU GUYS HATE ME YET?! XD**


	8. Chapter 8

**WOW, this seemed a lot longer when I wrote it, removed-and-transferred paragraphs aside. :/**

**But anyway, I TOLD YOU GUYS I WASN'T GONNA LEAVE YOU HANGING FOR MORE THAN A FEW MINUTES, DIDN'T I? XD**

**...**

**JFC, I swear to the Man in the Moon, if this doesn't get tears out of at _least_ one person, I am going to go into Rage Mode and flip a table, because I REALLY put on my angst/poignancy thick while I was writing this, and I don't do that often because I understand the emotional trauma that chapters/stories like that can cause, so at least one of you had better cry, and if you don't, you at least better have tears building up or about to come out by the time you get to the part where things get happy again, otherwise all my effort will have been for nothing and I'm gonna blow a gasket.**

**SO CRY AND/OR GET TEARFUL, OR I'LL SEND JACK AND ELSA TO FREEZE YOU SOLID LIKE I DID TO TORA19KAGE LAST NIGHT!**

**In other news, I still own nothing.**

**...**

**CRY FOR ME, I'M BEGGING YOU!**

* * *

Jack raced in after her as fast as he could possibly go, and when Tooth and Sandy realized what was happening, they followed him. As soon as his feet touched the snowy ground at the bottom of the gorge, Jack was frantically searching everywhere, calling Elsa's name and sending piles of snow up against the canyon walls in his panic. "Elsa!" he called. "Elsa, where are you?! Answer me! Elsa!" Tooth and Sandy did everything they could to help until finally, after what felt like ages to Jack, Tooth called out for him. He whirled around to find Tooth and Sandy at the other end of the chasm, shimmering ice blue fabric on the ground in front of them. "Elsa!" he cried.

He went racing over as fast as his feet could carry him, not even thinking to fly in his conflicted state of worried relief. He fell to his knees beside her, throwing his staff down carelessly as he did so, and brushing a strand of hair out of her face. "Elsa," he said, "Elsa, open your eyes. It's me, Jack. Please, Elsa, open your eyes, wake up. Elsa?...Elsa...please..." She remained unresponsive, with not even a fluttering of her eyelids to show that she was aware of his presence or the touch of his hand on her cheek. He was so focused on her that he didn't even realize when Tooth and Sandy went back up to the top, leaving him alone on the snowy ground with the young queen. With one last glimmer of hope remaining, he pressed his ear up against her chest and held his breath as he listened for the steady beating of her heart.

He only heard silence.

Slowly, Jack sat up and shook his head. "No," he muttered, "no, no, no, _no! Please _no! Please don't let her die, not yet, not like this, please, no! Elsa! Elsa, I'm begging you, please wake up, open your eyes, do something, _anything! _Don't leave me, Elsa, no! Don't do this to me, I can't lose you, not like this!"

Unable to hold it back anymore, Jack let the tears that had built up in his eyes spill out onto his cheeks. He put a hand to his heart and clutched the fabric of his hoodie tightly, leaning over Elsa's lifeless body as sobs began to hitch in his throat. His hood fell forward to cover his head, but he didn't even notice, his hand falling from his chest into the snow. At the opening of the gorge, the others were forced into reluctantly leaving as the wind picked up and sheets of snow began to fall, something that they all recognized as the beginnings of a blizzard, no doubt the result of the raging emotions that Jack was experiencing at the moment from what had just happened.

Jack stayed exactly where he was, collapsing onto his side in the snow next to Elsa and drawing her up against himself. "I'm sorry!" he said over the wind. "I'm sorry, Elsa, I'm so sorry, please forgive me! This is all my fault, I should have done something, I should have kept him away from Anna, but I didn't! I failed, and I'm so sorry! I swear, I'll make him pay for this, he won't get away with it! I'm sorry, Elsa! I...I love you!"

There. He'd said it. It was useless, he knew, because she couldn't hear him the way she was, but he'd said it, nonetheless. He'd thought it would help him feel at least a tiny bit better, but it didn't. If anything, it only made him feel worse. It left him with a hollow emptiness inside that he couldn't explain and didn't particularly care to, either. He had no way of knowing if she'd already been aware of his feelings or not, left only with bits and pieces of the last few days as evidence that she probably did. He'd come close to saying it a few times recently over the last few days or so as they'd been in the process of working out the details of their plan and making sure everything was in place, but she'd always stopped him with concerns about him getting hurt due to her being mortal and him not. That was it, though. Her comments and remarks on that subject were all he had as anything even close to solid evidence that proved she knew.

He lay there beside her in the snow, holding her against his chest and cradling her head in one hand, burying his face in her soft hair and letting his tears fall, his silver-white hair covered by his hood as the blizzard continued to rage and howl all around them. For the first time in his three hundred and seventeen years as the Spirit of Winter, Jack Frost knew what it meant to feel numb. Not because of the cold; never because of the cold. That was a numbness that he would never feel again, a sensation that he had no memory of and would never have to endure again on any level of intensity or harshness. This was a different kind of numbness altogether, emotional rather than physical, caused by the grief in his heart rather than the nerve endings in his body. He felt as if he couldn't move and would never be able to again. His joints felt stiff, and he no longer felt the beating of his own heart, convinced that it had stopped beating altogether and that this time, he was gone for good and that not even the Man in the Moon would be able to bring him back. He wouldn't care if the snow just built up and buried him forever along with Elsa and his staff, and he thought he would actually prefer it if that did happen. It wouldn't kill him, of course, since freezing to death and hypothermia were no longer possible for him being what he was, but he could at least stay there beneath a mound of snow where nobody would ever be able find him so he could just lay there and suffer in peace, and at least be with the girl he loved so that her beauty would be preserved forever by the cold.

But the storm didn't bury him, nor did it bury Elsa or his staff. Instead, it began to die down after what seemed to him like a lifetime until it had become no more than a gentle fall of soft, powdery snow, the blizzard leaving them both covered in a thin layer that was at the same time thick enough that, if someone were to look down into the gorge and see them, it looked as if someone had lightly sprinkled them with powdered sugar, their bodies leaving an outlined depression in the snow around them. As the snow continued to fall, Jack's eyes slowly began to close, and he welcomed the darkness like an old friend, letting it surround him in the hopes that it would take him to Elsa.

He didn't know how long he had been there when he opened his eyes again. Time had lost all meaning for him as soon as he'd seen her jump from the cliff, eventually coming to a complete standstill when he'd turned and seen her on the ground in front of his friends. All he knew was that when his eyes had closed earlier, it had been sometime in the mid-afternoon, and that when he opened them, he saw the stars above their heads. His eyes, still red from crying, roved across the night sky until they landed on the full moon. It seemed smaller and farther off than he remembered, then he thought that perhaps it was keeping its distance from him in shame. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew it was irrational to think that sort of thing for even a second when it came to MiM, who so rarely interacted or bothered communicating with his own creations, but Jack didn't care. His thoughts were foggy and his mind was numb with grief, and all he really knew for certain was that he needed someone or something to direct his anger at in Pitch's absence, and why not the Moon? He had, after all, done it for three hundred years prior to meeting Elsa, and just because his motives for doing so were different, he saw no reason why he shouldn't resort back to his old habits. So he continued to lay there, still holding Elsa as he directed hateful thoughts at the mysterious being who had made him what he was all those years ago, not knowing what else to do with himself.

Eventually, the wheels in his head began to slowly and reluctantly turn again, and he realized that Pitch would have been able to come back out when nightfall came, and that as much as he didn't want to leave her, he had to keep the promise he'd made to Elsa to get revenge on the King of Nightmares for what he'd done. So with a physically painful ache in his heart, he sat up just enough to lay Elsa down flat on her back, pushing those beautiful strands of hair back the way she'd always had them in life and laying her braid out over her shoulder flat and smooth. He straightened out her dress and cape, then folded her hands across her middle, hesitating for only a brief moment before using his powers to form a rose out of crystalline ice and placing it beneath her hands to keep it in place. He placed one last kiss on her lips, then picked up his staff and unwillingly forced himself to turn his back on her as it began to snow again, not bothering to lower his hood.

He put a bit of distance between himself and Elsa, then sighed heavily, feeling tears beginning to well up in his eyes again. He blinked them away and was just about to take off into the sky when suddenly, the moonlight seemed to grow brighter. He looked up, raising an arm to shield his eyes as they followed the beam of light, tracking it behind himself to...

...Elsa.

Jack looked up at the moon again, but quickly turned back to Elsa after doing so. Throwing one last glance in the moon's direction, he turned and began slowly moving back in the direction he'd come from. The closer he got to her, the brighter the glow seemed, until he was all but forced to stop several feet from her and look away, closing his eyes as he shielded them with his arm. After a moment, he opened his eyes to a level of brightness no higher than on any other night. He slowly lowered his arm. "...Elsa?" he said, fighting to keep his hopes from getting up out of a near-petrifying fear of having his grief come crashing back down on him in even more overwhelming amounts than before. He stayed where he was, his feet rooted to the ground. Then he saw her finger twitch. His eyes widened, watching in overwhelmed relief as she began to stir, one hand going to lay against the ground as she pushed herself into a sitting position, the rose of ice going to rest in her lap as her other hand went up to her forehead, her eyes squeezed shut.

_"Elsa!" _

All thought gone from his mind, Jack threw his staff aside for the second time that night and rushed over to her, falling to his knees beside her as he threw his arms around her tearfully. "Elsa, you're alive! Thank goodness, I thought I'd lost you forever!" he cried. Elsa returned his hug a bit hesitantly, obviously confused as to what exactly was going on. "Jack," she said, "what...what's going on, where are we? I don't..."  
"How do you feel?" Jack asked, pulling back to look at her with concern in his eyes. "Like I got hit in the head with an iceball, but otherwise, I'm fine," she said. "Why, what happened? Should I be worried?"

"How much do you remember?"  
"Pitch...Kristoff got hurt..." She gasped. "Anna!"  
"Anna's okay, I promise. Tooth saved her. Right as you threw yourself off the cliff, unfortunately. Tooth and Sandy found you, but it...it was too late. Everyone else left hours ago because I...kind of made a blizzard without meaning to because I...I couldn't...You were gone, Elsa. You were dead, I listened and your heart wasn't beating. I don't even know how long it's been, I just know that I stayed down here because I couldn't stand to leave you, not yet. I couldn't believe you were actually gone. The Man in the Moon brought you back, just like he did to me, but I just wish he'd done it sooner because I was numb, Elsa, I was completely numb, I just wanted to lay there with you and let the snow bury us both because I couldn't believe I'd lost you, I didn't want to believe it, I _still _don't, because I just...I love you, Elsa."

Her shoulders fell as her breath came out in a cloud between them, a smile gracing her features. "I know," she said, "I love you, too." Jack smiled, then cupped her face in his hand and kissed her. She kissed him back, and the longer they stayed like that, the more snow started to fall and the more the wind picked up until they were surrounded by a small blizzard that ended when Jack suddenly pulled away with wide eyes and began laughing as he pushed his hood back. "What is it?" Elsa asked with a giggle in her voice. "What's so funny?"

Jack took her hands in his and rose to his feet, pulling her up with him. He grabbed his staff, using it to gesture dramatically towards the moon. "Manny brought you back," he said, "that means that you're like me now, you're immortal! You're a Guardian now, Elsa!"

She blinked, then broke into a grin and laughed. "I am, aren't I?" She gasped, one hand flying over her mouth. "But...I don't know my center," she said. Jack threw his arms out to the sides. "Who cares?!" he said laughingly. "We've got all the time in the world to figure it out, and in the meantime, we don't have to worry about either of us getting old and dying like we did before!" Elsa considered this, then smiled. "You're right," she said. Jack grinned, his feet lifting up from the ground in his excitement and happiness. "Of course I'm right!" he said, and Elsa laughed. The sound made Jack's smile widen as he grabbed his staff and put it behind his head, gripping both ends of it. "Come on, princess," he said, holding out a hand to her. "We should probably go back and show everyone that you're not quite dead yet." Elsa smirked, crossing her arms as she lifted an eyebrow. "And what exactly do you have in mind for after that?" she asked.

He flashed a lopsided grin. "Easy," he said, "we track down Pitch and kick ourselves some serious Boogeyman butt."  
Elsa put her hand in his. "I like the way you think, Frost," she said. Jack chuckled as he lifted her up and held her against himself with an arm around her waist. Elsa put her arms around his neck and he held his staff in his other hand. The pair exchanged grins with each other, then Jack kissed Elsa's forehead. "Up, up, and away," he said, and with that, he flew off towards the North Pole with Elsa pressed securely against himself and her hand on his chest.

* * *

**I TOLD YOU I'D TAKE CARE OF EVERYTHING!  
**

**btw, did anyone catch the Monty Python reference in the next-to-last paragraph there? If you've ever seen Spamalot, you'll probably recognize it from one of the first few songs in the show, but anybody who's seen The Holy Grail movie should also recognize it, too.**

**Anyway, I shall leave you with this so I can go get dressed to go to my grandma's house for birthday cake and presents! **

**SEE YA 'ROUND!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Okay, so this one took longer than I expected, and yet it turned out shorter than it felt like it was when I was writing it. First of all, I know now who credit goes to for the cover picture! s0alaina, who can be found under that name both here and on DeviantArt! Okay, so I was messaging with one of my readers about this (you know who you are), and we were talking about how adorable Jack and Elsa are together and OTP and blah blah blah and I was like "yeah, no, i've already made kids for them and i've been doing this fandom thing long enough to know that once you do that for a pairing, there's no going back, you either go down with the ship or nothing," and she wanted to know if the kids will be making an appearance in this fic.**

**The answer is no, they will not. **

**BUT, before you guys get upset, let me assure you that I am already plotting out a sequel, and all three (yes, THREE!) of their children will play a big part in that, and to a slightly lesser extent, Kristoff and Anna's two kids will also be involved in making that plotline advance! So don't worry, you'll meet Klaus and his sisters soon enough, along with both of their cousins, I promise. :) (God, I have _such_ an easy time picturing the dad that Jack is! He's like all "okay-fine-you-can-do-the-thing-but-don't-tell-your-mom-that-i-let-you-do-thing-or-we'll-all-get-in-a-shitload-of-trouble" but at the same time he's like "dude, you touch my kids and i will murder you swear to god" and it's just so cute and aljfl;ajadf;lajd;k! n_n)**

* * *

"HEY, GUYS, LOOK WHAT I FOUND AT THE BOTTOM OF THE WOLF GORGE!" Jack shouted as he threw open the doors to the Globe Room and sauntered in with Elsa beside him. Anna looked up, her eyes red from crying, and immediately did a double-take, then leapt up and threw herself at Elsa, fresh tears already beginning to stream down her cheeks. Everyone expect her to hug her sister, but instead, she took them all by surprise by smacking the older girl across the face as hard as she could.

"You_ bitch!"_ she said through her sobs. "Dammit, Elsa, I thought I lost you forever! You think it'd kill _you_ to lose_ me?_ You have no _idea_ what you're even _talking_ about when you say that! This entire day has been complete _hell_ for me! What's the big idea, anyway, throwing yourself headfirst off a cliff like that?! You idiot, we all thought you were_ dead!_ Look at Olaf! He hasn't said a single word since we got back, he's just been sitting over there in that corner by himself like that all day because it upset him so much! We haven't heard even the tiniest sound out of him this entire time! Sven wouldn't even take the carrots that North offered him earlier! And_ you!"_ she added, whirling to face Jack and stab a finger into his face. _"You,_ mister, had us all worried sick, Tooth and I were half-convinced you were trying to freeze yourself to death in a hunk of ice or something! And don't even_ think_ that I don't know what you said earlier this week about my sister, Toothiana told me everything, every last word, and I can tell you for a _fact_ that Elsa's _one-hundred-and-ten-percent_ the same, and I swear to _God,_ if you don't put an end to all this goddamn tension_ right now,_ I will _personally—"_

"What, you mean like this?" Jack interrupted, then grabbed Elsa around the waist and kissed her full on the lips for everybody to see, and she returned it, both of them completely unashamed. Jack smirked at Anna once they'd pulled apart. "I'm assuming that by 'tension' you meant something along the lines of the sexual kind, right? Because believe me, I got an earful about that from Bunny the other day, right after Tooth threatened to drag me kicking and screaming by the roots of my hair through hell and back if I didn't meet her demands."

"And technically, Anna, I _was_ dead," Elsa said. "Jack said that he didn't hear my heart beating when he listened for it, but for whatever reason, the Man in the Moon decided to bring me back, so—"  
"So you're one of us now!" Tooth cried, then zipped over and wrapped the queen in a bone-crushing hug. "Oh, you and I are going to be_ best_ friends, Elsa, I just know it! I can't wait to find out what your center is!"  
"Well, _I_ can't wait to kick some Pitch Black butt!" Jack said, pounding his fist into his palm. From where he was sitting with his injured leg up on a footstool, Kristoff grinned. "I'm liking the sound of that," he said. "Though I like the idea of sending Hans into the next century as a little thank you present for what he did to my leg even more."

"Yeah, good luck with that, mate," Bunny said, patting him on the shoulder. Jack frowned in sympathy as he went over and knelt down to take a look at the injury. "How bad did he get you?" he asked, and Kristoff yanked up his pants leg. "Take a look for yourself," he said. Jack reflexively pulled away from the dark bloodstain all over the bandages that were wrapped around most of the blond's leg. "Yikes," the Guardian said. "That's really gotta hurt. You want me to put some ice on it for you, man?"

"Oh, ha-ha, you're so funny, Jack."  
"No, I'm serious, it might help!"  
"Wait, I'm confused," Olaf said. "So Jack and Elsa are in love, I got that part, but what...I—I don't understand, are you guys like courting now or something, are you getting married, what's happening exactly?" Jack looked up from examining Kristoff's wound and looked over his shoulder at Elsa as everyone looked at either one or the other. "Um...I...guess we'll figure it out and get back to you?" Jack offered finally. Anna put a hand over her mouth and stifled giggles. "Oh, just call yourselves a couple for now and figure out the details later, that's what Kristoff and I decided to do!" she said.

"Guys!" Bunny said. "I am _seriously_ antsy over here, it's like I've got a tick or somethin'! I never got to finish kicking arse, I _have_ to finish kicking arse if I'm gonna get this outta my system!"  
"Uh, okay, I'm not trying to be punny or anything here, because I'm annoyed by puns as much as the next guy, but you seriously need to chill out over there, kangaroo. Elsa and I were talking on the way back here, and we were thinking that maybe, if everybody's down with it, we could—"

_"Shove it, Popsicle!"_ Bunny shouted, getting right up in front of Jack so that their faces were inches apart. "Your first plan already got one of our own killed, not to mention that it almost got Anna killed, too, and Kristoff can't even stand up by himself! We are _done_ going along with any plans of yours, you hear me?! So just shove a hunk of ice in that hole on your face and let someone else take over this time, mate!"  
"Actually," Elsa said, "I came up with this one for the most part. Jack just helped iron out the wrinkles, really."

Bunny blinked, then drew away from Jack and relaxed. "Oh," he said, "well, why didn't you say so in the first place? Go ahead, then, Elsa, I'm all ears." Jack stared at him with an eyebrow cocked for several moments. "That," he said finally, "is just not fair, dude." Wordlessly, Bunny shoved his entire paw into Jack's face.

"Okay," Elsa said, "so here's what we came up with. Since Anna and I are both familiar with the castle's layout and she knows all the best hiding places, she, Jack, and I will use a snowglobe to get inside tomorrow at dusk. Since Tooth and all her girls are mentally connected, we also thought that Baby Tooth could come along so that she'll be able to tell Tooth, who can tell everyone else, when it's time to start the real fun. And this is what we thought of for that part..."

* * *

After they'd explained everything to the others, Jack asked Elsa to come with him, so she did. He took her up a tower and out of a door that opened to a balcony with stairs leading up to another balcony that put the edge of the roof right behind them.

"You_ had_ to see this view, princess," he said. "Sometimes I like to come up here just to escape for a while, you know? God, Clara would have loved it up here, she always loved having the wind blow in her hair."  
"All the stars," Elsa said, "they're beautiful. You know, my cousin went missing as a baby, and every year on her birthday for eighteen years, there would be a festival, and at night, my aunt and uncle would send one paper lantern up into the sky all by itself, and then everyone would release them, and there would just be thousands and thousands of these things floating up in the night sky, my parents took Anna and I to see it one year...it was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen in my life. This kind of reminds me of it."

Jack shrugged, running a hand through his hair. "Eh, it's alright, I guess. Tell the truth, I'm not really looking at it that much. It's kinda hard when you're standing right there being so damn gorgeous. You really need to stop that, it's distracting! And you know...just for the record...about Olaf's question earlier...Personally, I like the idea of getting to tell Jamie that you're my girlfriend when I get the chance to introduce you to him...if that's okay with you."  
Elsa smiled shyly and looked down at her hands on the railing, a light blush coloring her cheeks. "I'd like that, too," she said. Jack grinned, and when he went to kiss her on the cheek, she surprised him by turning her head and meeting his lips with her own.

"Can I ask what the deal is with you and Bunny?" Elsa said when they pulled apart. Jack laughed softly. "Geez, that?" he said. "That's been going on for decades. He's just pissy because I decided to have a little winter fun on Easter one year, and according to him, my blizzard, quote unquote, 'ruined' his precious holiday. Like I said, it was decades ago, before you were even born, probably when your parents were really little, but that damn kangaroo is so stubborn that he just can't drop it, so we just kind of settle for being frienemies instead of friends. Hey, you know what? Since the end-all fight isn't until tomorrow, you wanna have a little fun before the chaos starts?"

"And by that you mean...?"  
Jack climbed up onto the railing and held a hand out to her. "Let's go have a snowball fight," he said. "There's this one spot a little further down the mountain from here, no trees or anything, just this big, wide open space, perfect for running around and dodging and stuff, great view of the sky and the horizon, and aw, Elsa, you gotta see the sunrise from this place, I swear, it's the most amazing view you'll ever have of it. Aw, come on, don't look at me like that! What, don't you trust me enough by now to know that I'm not about to let you fall or anything? Okay, listen, princess, if we're gonna make this work, you're gonna have to get over this fear of flying you've got!"

"I am _not_ afraid of flying!" Elsa cried, crossing her arms indignantly. Jack smirked subtly at her and lifted an eyebrow as he extended his hand again. "Okay," he said, "then what's the problem? Let's go." Elsa bit her lower lip and averted her eyes, then sighed heavily and threw her arms out to the sides. "Okay, fine!" she said. "I'm scared of heights, alright? I—I don't know why, I mean, I've never even really been that high up, not until I went up the North Mountain, but that didn't bother me, so I guess it's just certain altitudes or something? I mean, it's not so bad if I can find something else to focus on, but it...I don't know, I mean...Of course I trust you, Jack, why wouldn't I? I just...You know?"  
Jack grinned and hopped down from the railing.

"Which way do you like better?" he asked. "Piggyback, or the other way?"  
"Piggyback, I guess," Elsa said, and Jack turned around. Then get on," he told her, "and let's get going. You said it helps to have something to focus on, right? That's easy, I'll just keep talking and you can focus on the sound of my voice, close your eyes and hide your face on my shoulder if you need to. Oh, come on, it'll be fun! You gotta lighten up a little, princess, 'cause like I told the other Guardians when they first recruited me, I'm all snowballs and fun, so let's see if we can't rub off on each other a little bit, huh? Come on, let's do this. I'm not gonna leave it alone, I hope you know that, I'll just keep on pestering you about it all damn night if that's what it takes to get you out to this place with me."

Elsa sighed overdramatically. "Oh, fine, you win," she said as she climbed onto his back and wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her face in the fabric of his hoodie as he got back up onto the railing. There was a whoosh of air in her ears, the sensation of falling from a great height, and then, in the next instant, it was over, and the wind was blowing through her hair. She lifted her head, but kept her face turned inwards so that the bridge of her nose was against Jack's neck, and she closed her eyes and listened as he began talking. He would jump to a different topic every now and then, sometimes with no warning or expectation, and to something that had absolutely nothing to do even vaguely with the prior topic, but it didn't matter. He could be talking about about paint drying on a wall and she wouldn't care, because it wasn't really the words she was listening to so much as it was his voice. The sound of it and the feeling of the vibrations it sent through his chest were comforting to her and, just as they'd both hoped, kept her mind off of their surroundings and what was going on, which, in turn, made the trip pass quickly. Or at least, she thought it did, because it didn't feel like much time had passed before her feet were touching solid ground again and Jack was turning around to smile at her.

"See, what'd I tell you? That wasn't so bad, now, was it?" he said. Before she had time to respond, he was up off the ground again with a snowball taking shape in the palm of his hand as he got a bit of distance between himself and the Queen. As soon as she realized what he was doing, Elsa quickly began working on her own snowball, but before she could finish it, Jack had successfully pelted her, making her drop her half-formed ammo in surprise as the bits of the snow got stuck in her hair and the rest of it fell to the ground. She looked at Jack, and he smirked at her, cocking an eyebrow as if to say, 'Well? What are you waiting for? Come on and show me what ya got.'

Then her expression shifted to one of sheer determination, and his became one that said plain as day, 'Oh shit.'

So for the next few hours or so, they just ran around together laughing and throwing snowballs back and forth, playfully taunting and teasing each other and getting snow stuck in their hair, and at one point, Elsa got hit in a spot that, partly because of the angle, resulted in some of the snow going down the front of her dress and into her cleavage, and the look on her face when this happened made Jack howl with laughter, so in revenge, Elsa calmly walked right past him while he was doubled over trying to regain his breath and just as casually as if she'd been doing it all her life, dropped a lone snowball down the back of his hoodie, and then it was her turn to laugh uncontrollably. And then, at another point, Elsa was looking all around for Jack, but he seemed to have disappeared completely when suddenly, as she turned around, she found herself standing there in the snow with her lips pressed up against Jack's while he hung upside down in the air in front of her with his staff held between his knees and his legs wrapped sort of awkwardly around it, the tip of one toe touching the place where the wood began to curve.

As they began heading back later, Jack couldn't help but be pleased with himself for coming up with this idea, because he hadn't seen Elsa smile so much until they started throwing snowballs, and the sheer, unbridled joy that had lit up her face made him feel happier than he had in a long time.

_I could get used to this._

* * *

**Okay, so I'm going on a three-hour roadtrip tomorrow and will be gone for a few days and don't think I'll have another up before Christmas, so this chapter is my early present to each and every one of you, my precious, beautiful readers!**

**OH! And if you want to get to know the kids a bit because you're like me and are going to start dying of impatience to meet them now that you know they exist, just include one or more of the following names in your review, and I'll respond to it via PM with a brief little thing about what they're like! :) Here are the names:**

**Jack and Elsa's: Nikolaus (a.k.a. Klaus), Clara, and Lucia  
Kristoff and Anna's: Isaak and Senetta**


	10. Chapter 10

**Again, this took longer to write, but it turned out shorter. :/ I got writer's block partway through and had to take a bit of a break, but I got spurred into gear again last night because my dad and brother went to some concert I couldn't care less about, so my mom and I watched Rise of the Guardians, and...yeah. You know how that goes. Anyway, during that writer's block, I had some lovely conversations with a lot of you via the PM system, one of you asked me about the book I'm trying to write, and I simply ADORED getting to do that with all of you! If there's one thing I love about this site more than the fact that it's helped me grow so much as a writer, it's all the lovely people I've met during my time on here, I mean one of my absolute best friends in the entire world lives in New Jersey and we've never even met face-to-face, but we DID meet, all thanks to this website, and we're even talking on the phone and hearing each other's voices now, I trust that girl more than I do some people I've known since kindergarten. Getting reviews and replying to them is one of my very favorite things in the whole world, part of what I love about it is that I never know what the other person and I will end up talking about and the possibility of clicking with someone and finding a new friend is the best part, you know?**

**Anyway, like I was saying in one of those conversations (I can't remember who it was with right now because I recently got up and my brain's still not fully functional yet, I'd have to go back and look, but you know who you are, so as long as one of us does, it's okay XD I'll probably remember later once I'm more awake), this story unfortunately is turning out to be much shorter than I originally thought it would, which makes me sad, but the good news is, I've already got the basic plot for the sequel planned out, and I'm hoping it'll be just as fun as this one has been for all of us! Um, let's see, anything else...?**

**Oh, while I'm on the subject of this ending sooner than I wanted, I feel I should let you know that this is technically the last chapter, but I'm about to go and write the epilogue, so it's not TOTALLY done quite yet. Um, anything else...? Nope, don't think so! I do have one thing I wanna say, but I'll save it for the end and let you read for now, so enjoy!  
**

**OH, ONE MORE THING!**

**To my anonymous reviewer under the name Chloe, concerning the location of Jamie's town; it's in Pennsylvania, sweetie. If you get on the Rise of the Guardians wiki and look at his and/or Jack's page(s), you'll see that they both are from the town of Burgess, Pennsylvania, and Jack was alive sometime during the early-to-mid colonial times in the 1600's.**

* * *

_She's crazy,_ Jack thought. _They both are. I'm in love with a madwoman, and so is Kristoff. Elsa's gonna get herself killed all over again and Anna's gonna go with her this time, I just know it._

Their plan had been working almost as close to perfection as these things went until the fight somehow left the castle and transferred itself out onto the fjord. That was when the snowstorm had started to form. Elsa, in her anger over what he had done to her sister and determination to protect her kingdom from him, had quickly zeroed in on Hans, making him her primary target. With fury written all over her face, she had begun to stalk after him with icy shards swirling around her hands. Anna, when she saw what her sister was doing, had quickly drawn the sword that she was once again borrowing from Tooth and gone hurrying after the older girl to catch up. The result was that the two of them were now side-by-side, one with sharp bits of ice and one with a sword, hunched over in the shoulders slightly and moving towards the Prince of the Southern Isles with deadly expressions on their faces as he moved backwards in the opposite direction.

"You! Picked! The wrong! Girls! To! Mess with!" Elsa shouted furiously, punctuating the words with blasts of ice that came near Hans's feet until finally, with the last one, she succeeded in trapping one foot on the frozen surface of the fjord. Hans looked from his foot to Elsa with a mixture of shock and terror in his eyes, then tried in vain to free himself. Jack's shoulders relaxed somewhat as his eyes wandered towards Elsa and he grinned. _Atta girl._

He didn't get to be proud of her for long, though, because he noticed a swirl of black mixed in with the flurries overhead. "You saw it, too?" Bunny murmured. Jack nodded slowly. "Yeah," he said, "I saw it." He looked down when he felt a tugging on his hoodie. Sandy was looking up at him, and he pointed insistently towards the spot where the black swirl had been, then used his Dreamsand to make a picture over his head of one person following another. "Yeah, that's what I was thinking," Jack told him. "Tooth, Sandy and I are gonna go check that out up there. You wanna come with?" Tooth looked from Jack to North, then over to Elsa, who was still hyperfocused on Hans, then back at Jack and gave a nod. "That's actually a pretty good idea," she said, "it'll split us straight down the middle. Three down here to deal with Hans, three up there to go after Pitch."

She and Jack grinned at each other. "North!" Tooth said. "I'm going with Jack and Sandy to check things out in the sky, see if we can find Pitch up there! You and Bunny help the girls out with Hans!"

"Good as done!" North replied as he drew his swords with an eager look on his face. Tooth looked back at Jack, who looked at Sandy, who nodded at him, and then he turned back to Tooth. "Let's go kick some ass," he said.

And they took off into the sky with Jack in the lead to keep a clear line of sight for everyone in the whirling snow.

"PITCH!" Tooth shouted. "PITCH, WE KNOW YOU'RE UP HERE SOMEWHERE, YOU CAN'T HIDE FOREVER, YOU HEAR ME?! _KOZMOTIS PITCHINER!"_  
"That's a name I haven't heard in a long, long time, Toothiana. Not since a long time before the beginning of the Dark Ages when I led the Golden Armies as the Lord High General of the Galaxies."

"And now it will be the last thing you'll ever hear," Tooth said. "The three of us will make sure of that. If Emily Jane could see you now..." Pitch's silver-gold eyes darkened and he glared at the Tooth Fairy. "How dare you say her name like that, you feather-covered—_Agh!"_

He turned his hate-filled gaze on Jack, who already had another snowball in hand. "Don't you _ever_ let me hear you talk that way about my friends again, do you understand me?" he said. And without waiting for an answer, he hurled the snowball as hard as he could, and it pelted the Boogeyman right in the face. As his bow and arrow began to take shape in Pitch's hands, Jack's eyes fixated on a spot above the other spirit's head.

_"Now, Sandy!"_

In the next instant or so, everything exploded around Jack and Tooth in a mixture of black and gold sand as Pitch turned and fired an arrow, which collided almost immediately with the canonball that Sandy had shot out of the canon he had positioned on his cloud in front of himself. "Jack, where are you?!" Tooth called. The sand was so thick in the air that she and Jack could barely see their own hands, let alone each other, and they had both been forced to raise their arms in order to protect their eyes. "I'm over here!" Jack shouted.

"Where's here?!"  
"I...I think to your left!"

He nearly jumped out of his skin in surprise when he felt something latch onto the wrist of the hand that held his staff, but then he managed to look over just enough to see a familiar hand clutching at the fabric of his sleeve and relaxed upon realizing that it was only Tooth trying to keep track of him so they wouldn't get separated and lost again in the confusion. As soon as he didn't feel sand raining down on him anymore, Jack lowered his arm, glared in Pitch's direction, and surprised Tooth by yanking his wrist out of her grasp unexpectedly. Yelling wordlessly at the top of his lungs like a madman with his staff raised over his head, he charged at Pitch, every muscle in his body tensed, slamming himself into the Boogeyman as hard as he could and sending both of them plummeting to the ground with Pitch underneath. When they landed, Jack threw his staff to the side and began hitting Pitch as hard as he could with both fists.

_"You! Killed! My! Girlfriend!"_ he shouted, punctuating each word with a fist to the jaw. "You! _Killed!_ Her! _You_ are the reason I know what hell looks like, and _you_ are the reason she threw herself off that damn cliff, you sick bastard! I swear, by the time I get done with you, you will _wish_ you could die! You will wish that you were still trapped and that moonbeam had never found you and set you free! You think I was mad the last time? That was nothing compared to what you're about to have to deal with, believe me!"

"You worry so much about your little girlfriend, you never think to ask about your little _sister,_ do you, Jack?"  
"My_ sister?_ Clara has been dead for three centuries, what the hell are you talking about? You punk-ass little piece of—"  
"Oh, Clara, was that her name? Just like the girl in that silly little ballet that got shrunk down to the size of a mouse! You know, our own Clara wasn't such a bad little mouse herself. Quite good, actually. Oh, such fear! Such rich, delicious fear! Every night, every time she closed her eyes, it was fantastic! That fear of the ice, oh! It stayed with her the rest of her life, you know. The girl never went skating again, you know."

_Crack._

"Did you just...Did you just snap the bones in my nose? How strong are you, you scrawny little—"  
"I just broke your nose and you're going to sit there calling me names? Are you sure that's the best idea? So. Kozmotis Pitchiner, huh? What a name."  
"It was a name that everyone respected and the enemies of the Lunanoff family feared. Oh, how I would have loved to know that fear's taste, but alas, that was before I became what I am now!"

Jack's fist began to tighten again, but then something occurred to him and it loosened. "Emily Jane," he said, "who's that? Didn't seem too happy when Tooth brought her up. What is she, like an old flame?" Pitch sneered and let out a growling noise. "None. Of your. Business," he said through gritted teeth. Jack only laughed. "Aw, did someone kill your girlfriend, too?" he said. "How did it happen? Someone try to drop her sister off a cliff, or was it a little less on the self-sacrificial side? I dunno, maybe...Oooh, I know! It would have to be before the Dark Ages, right? I'm thinking a public hanging from a tree on a hill, was that it? Oh, or maybe they chased her down the street throwing stones, like in the Bible. Did she like fairy tales? I bet Cinderella was her favorite, wasn't it? So how ironic it must have been for the both of you when her she ended up just like the Ugly Stepsisters in the Grimm version of the story! Ooh, I'm really starting to piss you off now, aren't I? How's it feel, huh, Pitch? To be the butt end of the taunting for once? Not fun, is it? Not fun at all."

"She's my _daughter,_ you little shit!"  
"A _daughter?_ Oh, well that's even better. Who'd you have to kill to make that happen, her mom? Oh, wait, if that was the case, then Daughter Dearest would have done that part for you, wouldn't she? But then what could have possibly become of sweet little Emily Jane after Daddy became a monster if Mommy was already dead? There's a word for it, it's right on the tip of my tongue, what was it again?...Oh yeah. Orphaned. Woah, hey! Haha! Look at that, it worked. I got you so worked up that you've been leaking sand this whole time without even realizing it, and, oh, hey, remember that one time in Antarctica? What was it you said to me again? Not the part about the cold and dark, but that other thing, what was it? Oh yeah, now I remember. 'Look at what we can create.' You remember that, Pitch? Well, we did it again, buddy. Look at that. You just helped me trap you on this fjord and you had no idea until it was too late. How's that for a plot twist? Now, let's see, how exactly does one kill the Boogeyman?"

"Don't think you can...unfortunately," Bunny said as he and the others came over to join the Winter Spirit, Hans sitting on Sven's back with his wrists held together by a band of ice put there by Elsa. Jack frowned thoughtfully as he stood up beside the six-foot tall rabbit. "Well," he said, "we turned his own Nightmares against him last time, I'm sure we'll think of something. And in the meantime, what are we gonna do about Prince Not-so-Charming over here?"

Everyone turned to look at Hans, who blinked several times. "Um...would it be too much to ask that you don't go about this too...rashly?" he asked uncertainly. Everyone exchanged looks among one another, then Tooth nodded to Elsa and Anna. "He screwed around with you two and your kingdom the most," she said, "so it's only fair that you get to decide his punishment. Personally, I'm thinking somewhere along the lines of indefinite dungeon time, but that's just a suggestion." There was a pause for a couple moments or so while the sisters looked at each other, a silent conversation passing between them as they went over their options and tried to figure out the best way to go about things. "I think," Anna said finally, "that we should leave him alone, and as soon as the fjords are thawed and the boats can move again, we'll just send him back home and see what his twelve older brothers think of his behavior." Hans gasped, and Elsa grinned when she saw the look on his face. "I think that's an excellent idea," she said.

"Speaking of which, how exactly are you going to thaw all this out, mate?" Bunny asked. Elsa and Anna looked at each other. "I...I'm not sure," the Queen admitted. Anna put a hand on her shoulder. "Isn't it obvious by now?" she asked. "Olaf figured it out and doesn't even realize that he knows. Not yet, anyway." Everybody turned to look at the snowman, who was standing beside Sven's front legs. "Who," he said, "me?"

Anna smiled and nodded as she got down beside him. "It's what saved me, remember?" she said. Olaf seemed to consider this for a moment or so, then his face slowly began to light up. "An act of true love will thaw a frozen heart," he said. Elsa furrowed her brow thoughtfully as Anna stood up. "Love...will thaw..." Elsa muttered to herself. Then it dawned on her. "Love...Of course."

"Elsa?"  
She looked up at Jack. "Love," she said simply. Then she lifted her arms and everyone watched as the ground began to shake and crack, the ice and snow breaking away and rising into the air, all except what was keeping Pitch trapped in one place. Beneath their feet, the bow of a ship began to thaw, and all around them, the rest of the fjord melted and the ships righted themselves as villagers came out to watch as the warmth returned. With one final wave of her arms, Elsa gathered everything into a giant snowflake over the city, then sent it away in a burst of sparkling beauty, leaving behind only a warm summer day. Anna smiled at her sister. "I knew you could do it," she said.

"Hands down, this is the best day of my life!" Olaf cried. "And it might also be my last," he added upon noticing how rapidly he was melting. "Olaf!" Elsa cried. "Oh, hang on, little guy." With a wave of her hand, she reassembled him and put a perpetually snowing little cloud over his head, which made him beam with delight. "My own personal flurry!" he said happily.

"I still don't understand," Hans announced, "she froze your heart!"  
Despite his injured leg, Kristoff looked as if he were about to go and do a thing or two to the prince, but Anna put up a hand to stop him, then calmly walked over to her ex-fiance. "The only frozen heart around here," she said, "is yours." She turned away, feeling quite proud of herself, then whirled back around suddenly and decked him right in the jaw, sending him toppling off of Sven and onto the hard wooden deck of the ship, landing with his face smushed up against the ground next to Pitch, the sight of which made everybody laugh as Anna went over and hugged her sister, meeting Kristoff's eyes over the older girl's shoulder and smiling at him.

* * *

**Okay, wow, I don't know why, but I really want to include this, so I'm going to. Okay, so last night when I was watching Rise of the Guardians with my mom and Jack started doing the opening narration, I hadn't watched it in so long that even though I know what Chris Pine's voice sounds like, I was not prepared for how DEEP Jack's voice was, I was like, "Wait a minute, was it that low the last time I watched this? 'Cause I seriously don't think he was, I don't remember his voice being that low last time I watched this, what is going on here?"**

**Then again, the same thing happened with Mufasa when my dad and I watched Lion King together a while back and it was the first time in YEARS that I'd watched it, I knew his voice was deep but I'd forgotten HOW deep and I was like "HELLO!" **

**Anyway, it was the first time my mom had seen the movie, and so she was like asking me stuff like, "Wait, if he's not a Guardian, how do they know each other?" and then when Sandy "died," she was like, "WAIT, DOES THIS MEAN THAT HE'S DEAD, HE'S NOT COMING BACK?" and then when Jack first heard his sister's voice calling him, "What is that, who's calling him?" and then when he went into Pitch's lair and told Baby Tooth that he had to find out what that voice was that was calling him, she was like, "No you don't!" and so my responses were basically just:**

**"Well, they're all immortal, and he's like 317 by this point, so he's had encounters with them, like he and Bunnymund wouldn't have this grudge against each other if they hadn't met at least once before."**

**And also**

**"NO NOT EXACTLY XD"**

**And then I was like **

**"Um, let's just say she's been dead for like 300 years."**

**And then the last one, I just was like, **

**"Um, actually, yes he does, because if he doesn't find out what that is, he'll never figure HIMSELF out." *pause, Jack finds Pitch's lair* "Plus he'd never have found out where Pitch is hiding." *pause, he finds all the Fairies and teeth* "PLUS, he never would have found Baby Tooth's sisters or the stolen teeth OR HIS OWN MEMORY BOX."**

**But yeah, it was just really funny and cool because I was like, "Damn, this is your first time watching it, Sandy doesn't speak a word, it's this early in the movie, and you're already that upset about what happened to him? *pause* YOU TRULY ARE MY MOTHER!"**

**AND GUESS WHAT ELSE? Turns out, I'm actually NOT that far off the mark with Tooth's rapidfire chatter! I had forgotten about this because of how long it had been since I last watched it, but she IS really talkative, just not quite in the same way that I've been portraying her as! At the beginning of the movie and during their tooth collecting spree especially, she just like is spouting off all kinds of things non-stop, but instead of really friendly hey-how-ya-doin-let's-get-to-know-each-other stuff, it's telling the girls, "Okay, you go here, here, here, here, collect these types of teeth from these kids in these countries/towns/etc., leave this much money, and report back to me by this time" and once or twice it's also "Oh my goodness, look, girls, look at these beautiful teeth!" Like, she specifically says to a small group of Fairies at the beginning, "Have you ever seen a more beautiful lateral incisor in all your life? And look how she FLOSSED!"**

**SO I WAS ACTUALLY PRETTY CLOSE, NOT BAD FOR SOMEONE WHO HADN'T WATCHED IN SO LONG IF I DO SAY SO MYSELF. :D**

**Anyway, I'm about to go get to work on the epilogue so I can start the sequel. :)  
**


	11. Epilogue

**This might just be the shortest epilogue I've ever written for something, but it just seemed like the perfect place to stop, so there you have it.**

* * *

_An act of true love will thaw a frozen heart._

It was in the same moment that she realized how to save her kingdom from eternal winter that it dawned on Elsa what her center was.

Love.

She became an official Guardian on the same day that Anna and Kristoff had the first of their two weddings, one in Arendelle's chapel and the other with the trolls. In the year that followed, Jack was named the kingdom's Prince Consort, and later, its King, the coronation ceremony taking place only hours after his and Elsa's wedding, which people said was the event of the century, and her veil in and of itself was arguably the most beautiful ever seen in the history of Arendelle's royal weddings. Anna had been mostly responsible for it, refusing to let even Elsa see it until it was already on her head the day of the wedding, and she had personally seen that it was modeled after the cape of her sister's ice dress, with the same snowflake patterns and the same brilliant way of glittering in the light.

Hans was taken back to the Southern Isles by one of the dignitaries who had come to Arendelle for Elsa's coronation, and although they never heard what became of him, they all assumed that it involved his brothers and was not very much fun for him, just as it clearly wasn't very much fun for the Duke of Weselton when Elsa cut off trade with his people. As for Pitch, he was put into an isolated cave in the mountains that few people knew the location of and even fewer had the means to actually reach, then sealed away using a combination of powerful magic and ice. "After all," Jack said to him on the day it happened, "cold and dark go together so well. Don't they?"

And that, as they say, is the end of that.

* * *

**THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR TAKING THE TIME TO READ THIS EVEN WITH ITS CRAPPY SUMMARY, AND I LOVE EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU. THANK YOU FOR ALL THE WONDERFUL REVIEWS AND THE CONVERSATIONS THAT CAME OF THEM, THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT AND THE CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM, THE FEEDBACK, EVERYTHING.**

**YOU ARE ALL** **SPECIAL BEAUTIFUL SNOWFLAKES AND YOU ARE PERFECT AND I LOVE YOU LIKE I CAN'T EVEN I AM UNABLE TO EVEN I LACK THE ABILITY TO EVEN THAT'S HOW MUCH I ADORE ALL OF YOU STOP BEING SO PERFECT RIGHT NOW JUST STAHP**


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